Luodai Ancient Town

Hakka migrants to Sichuan built this hall in 1746, and its towering fire walls and skilled wood and stone carving make it one of China's largest Hakka guild halls.

Jiangxi migrants raised this hall in the Qianlong era, notable for its beamless opera-stage ceiling and fine woodcarving in the Ji'an style.

Modeled at full scale on a Yongding tulou in Fujian, this four-story ring-shaped building tells how Hakka families moved west during the Huguang-to-Sichuan migration.

With four guild halls standing side by side, Luodai is hailed as the first Hakka town of western China, known for its water dragon festival and heritage liangfen noodles.

Part of Luodai Ancient Town's history: Huguang Fills Sichuan. Late Ming rebel leader from Yan'an who founded the Daxi regime at Chengdu in 1644 and was shot dead by Qing troops at Fenghuang Mountain in Xichong

Part of Luodai Ancient Town's history: Huguang Fills Sichuan. Early Qing Han Banner official who twice governed Sichuan under Kangxi and asked the court to recruit settlers to reclaim the province's empty land, rewarding officials by the number they brought in.

Part of Luodai Ancient Town's history: Huguang Fills Sichuan. Qing emperor of the Kangxi reign who put down the Three Feudatories, annexed Taiwan, signed the Treaty of Nerchinsk with Russia and led campaigns against Galdan

Part of Luodai Ancient Town's history: Huguang Fills Sichuan. Fifth Qing emperor, of the Yongzheng reign, who merged the poll tax into the land tax, replaced native chieftains with appointed officials, and created the Grand Council

Huguang Fills Sichuan

After the wars of the Ming-Qing transition emptied Sichuan, the Qing state drew settlers from Huguang and other provinces with registration and permanent land title, reshaping the province's people and customs over more than a century.

In 1746 Hakka settlers from Guangdong pooled funds at Luodai to build their native-place hall, the Nanhua Palace, today's Guangdong Guild Hall.

Luodai preserves four guild halls and other Ming–Qing Hakka buildings, documenting immigrant settlement and cultural continuity in Sichuan.

A Luodai local legend says Liu Shan dropped a jade belt into a well, after which the name Luodai evolved phonetically from ‘fallen belt’.