Shedian Shan-Shan Guild Hall

At Shedian, in Sheqi county, the Shan-Shan guild hall was paid for by Shanxi and Shaanxi merchants living in the town, from 1756 to 1892. Three courtyards deep, its axis runs from a glazed screen wall through a suspended mirror tower and a stone archway to the great worship hall and the great main hall. The merchants of Shedian did not only build: the magistrate’s office in Nanyang still carries a stele in which the town’s guilds thanked a prefect for protecting traders’ rights.