Linxia: Street Culture, Courtyards and Craftsmanship

Those wishing to explore Linxia’s culture can choose between street districts, courtyard architecture and museum collections, each offering a different focus. Bafang Shisanxiang combines historic streets and residential buildings with cultural exhibitions, culinary experiences and relaxation in courtyards. Dong Gongguan offers a distinct view of the layout of a courtyard complex; at the Linxia Prefecture Museum, painted pottery is among the main highlights. You can plan your itinerary according to whether you are particularly interested in streetscapes and crafts, architecture or collections.

Street District and Crafts

In Linxia City, Bafang Shisanxiang is a historic street district with a pedestrian area of about 410,000 square meters and a main street more than 1,300 meters long. These two measurements describe different aspects of the district: the area of its pedestrian zone and the length of its main street. This makes it possible to understand the streetscape not only through individual buildings, but also through its extent and central thoroughfare.

Bafang Shisanxiang features 119 intangible cultural heritage projects at prefecture level or above. These include copper kettle craftsmanship, brick relief, wood carving, egg carving, clay sculpture and gourd carving. The cultural heritage is presented through museums and exhibition halls as well as cultural performances and demonstrations in the street. These different formats offer more than one way to experience the district: alongside historic streets and residential buildings, there are exhibitions, culinary experiences and places to relax in courtyards.

This mix can help you plan your day: you can focus on the buildings and streetscape, or spend more time exploring the craft traditions and cultural presentations on display. If you enjoy combining different topics, Bafang Shisanxiang offers both historic buildings and insights into intangible cultural heritage. The activities mentioned include sightseeing, exhibitions, dining and spending time in courtyards.

Courtyards and Architectural Forms

Provincial-level cultural heritage sites within Bafang Shisanxiang include the North Temple Dragon Screen Wall and the courtyard at Daga Lane No. 80. Their designation encompasses two different architectural forms: a dragon wall and a courtyard. Dong Gongguan, in turn, has 126 preserved rooms. The complex consists of a main entrance, passage hall, southwest courtyard, northwest courtyard, inner courtyard and outer courtyard; its floor plan corresponds to the Chinese character “田”.

You can understand the layout of Dong Gongguan by considering its sequence and arrangement: the entrance area, passage hall and several courtyards together form the described floor plan. The number of preserved rooms and the individual structures convey two different aspects of the complex—its scale and its spatial layout. This is a different way to explore cultural history from looking at individual protected buildings in the street district.

Painted Pottery and Museum Collection

The Linxia Prefecture Museum in Linxia City houses 4,288 cultural relics, including 66 first-grade, 230 second-grade and 705 third-grade protected objects. These collection figures may change as the collection is updated. The museum has a particularly rich collection of painted pottery from the Majiayao culture, dating from the Neolithic period to the Bronze Age. It is a national second-grade museum and also a patriotism education site in Gansu Province.

The cultural themes are therefore quite distinct: Bafang Shisanxiang brings together streets, residential buildings, crafts and different forms of presentation, while the museum places particular emphasis on cultural relics and painted Majiayao pottery. When choosing a holiday apartment, you can base its location on which of these themes matters most to your itinerary and compare the specific accommodation location with the cultural sites you plan to visit.

Discover more destinations: Jinchang, Gannan, Wuwei, Longnan, Dingxi, Jiayuguan, Qingyang, Tianshui.

Return to the main travel overview: Gansu.