Three Lanes And Seven Alleys Guide

Three Lanes and Seven Alleys, or Sanfang Qixiang, is located at the centre of Fuzhou City. It is a well-preserved architectural complex of the Ming and Qing Dynasty, covering a total area of 40 hectares with 268 ancient houses.
As a famous ancient block, Three Lanes and Seven Alleys is an important symbol to show the long history of Fuzhou city. It enjoys a reputation of "the Museum of the buildings of the Ming and Qing Dynasty” as well as the "living fossil of ancient city street system" . Nowadays, some of the local people are still living there.
Each lane and alley in this ancient complex has its own special name which is given by its own history and story. The three lanes are Yijin Lane, Wenru Lane and Guanglu Lane. And the Seven Alleys are Yangqiao Alley, Langguan Alley, Anmin Alley, Huangxiang Alley, Taxiang Alley, Gongxiang Alley and Jibi Alley.

Three Lanes and Seven Alleys is compared by many architects as the museum of architecture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties era. It is said the layout of the lanes and alleys was formed even earlier back in Tang and Song dynasties almost 1000 years ago. It is actually a century-old block crisscrossed by historic lanes and alleys. This spot is paved with slab stones; also decorated with white walls as well as gray tiles. The houses there are built with historic huge-bricks and decorated with seashells, which are easier to get from sea due to Fuzhou coastal location. This interesting spot looks like a shaped chessboard. Having a bird's eye view of the city, the shape of the lanes and alleys comply with natural features as well as together with other winding narrow paths.

More than 150 ancient buildings can be seen here. And most of them have complete courtyards which are valuable. The majority of the houses were the homes of scholars, bureaucrats or wealthy figures during ancient times. There are some former residences of the famous people in China, like Lin Zexu, Bing Xin, etc. These houses have various shaped ponds, pavilions as well as bridges.

• Xichan Temple
• West Lake Park
• Lin Zexu Memorial Hall
• Mountain Gu
• Kaiyuan Temple
• Qingjing Mosque
• Luoyang Bridge
• Fuzhou National Forest Park
• Three Lanes And Seven Alleys