No trip to Guǎngzhōu is complete without a stroll down century-old Ēnnìng Lù. Located in the area known traditionally as Xīguān (西关), the western gate and commercial hub of old Canton, it still retains a few cultural relics, despite earnest urban renewal efforts.
The highlight is Bāhé Academy , a guild hall for Cantonese opera practitioners. The original academy opened in 1889 to provide lodging, schooling, medical and funeral services to Cantonese opera troupes. It’s now a gathering place for retired artists. It is not open to the public, but you can see the original 3m-tall wooden door from 1889. The only item that survived a bombing by the Japanese in 1937, it was used during the Great Leap Forward as a parking plank for 4-tonne vehicles, and clearly survived that as well.
Turn right as you leave the academy and walk for about a block before making another right into a lane called Yongqing Erxiang (永庆二巷). Turn left into a smaller lane. The second-last unit here is Luányú Táng (銮舆堂), a 200-year-old union for actors playing martial and acrobatic roles in Cantonese opera. The union still gives martial arts training for the stage to children, and its members come for operatic excerts ‘jamming’ session on the 2nd floor. Visitors may be let in at their discretion.
Interestingly, the last unit in this lane used to be the ancestral home of Bruce Lee ,the kung fu (gōngfū) icon, whose father Lǐ Hǎiquán (李海泉) was – you guessed it – a Cantonese opera actor and a member of that union. There’s now a wall in its place, but if you retrace your steps out of the alley, turn right and head up Ēnnìng Lù, you’ll pass the gates of a school. In the right corner, just past the entrance, you can see that shuttered house.
