Huguang Guild Hall, Historical theater in Xuanwu District, Beijing, China
The Huguang Guild Hall at 3 Hufang Road in Xicheng District consists of a front courtyard with the opera stage and a middle courtyard holding the Xiangxian Temple and Wenchang Pavilion. The stage has ten backstage rooms and forty viewing rooms on three sides of a central open yard. The theater interior is painted red, green and gold, with tables and a stone floor.
Founded in 1807 by officials Liu Quanzhi of Changsha and Li Junjian of Huanggang as a Huguang native-place hall, it was expanded in 1830 with a theatre for gatherings and banquets. On 25 August 1912 the Kuomintang was founded here, with Sun Yat-sen elected chairman and Huang Xing deputy. The site became a National Key Cultural Relic in 2019.
The name Huguang combines Hunan and Hubei, the two provinces whose natives built the hall in 1807. Each Lunar New Year, the two provinces' residents in Beijing held a gathering here and hired famous actors for three days of opera; Tan Xinpei and Yu Shuyan performed on this stage. In 1927, the hall's 120th year, a public sacrifice to Qu Yuan was held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.
The guild hall stands at 3 Hufang Road in Xicheng District, near the Hufangqiao corner south of the Hepingmen area. Only the front and middle courtyards survive; the rear buildings were demolished in the 1970s when Liuma Shi Dajie was widened. The Wenchang Pavilion and Xiangxian Shrine now serve as the Beijing Opera Museum, and the great theater reopened on 5 January 2024 after restoration begun in April 2022.
The guild hall's Ziwu Well, about 2 chi wide and over 7 zhang deep, was said to give sweeter water at the zi and wu hours; it was filled in during the 1970s and restored with a new marble platform in 1996. The theater reopened on 5 January 2024 after renovation begun in April 2022.
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