The street door gives nothing away, and that is deliberate. Behind a blank brick wall on a working lane in 禅城 Chánchéng, the old core of 佛山 Fóshān, a narrow entrance opens into a courtyard with a tree in it, a stone floor and a ring of rooms around the edge. The building is a restored 老宅 lǎozhái, an old family house, and its plan is the traditional Lingnan one: a central open court bringing light and air into a deep plot, a hall on the far side facing the entrance, and rooms along the sides. The wall to the street is plain because the money and the ornament were spent inside, on the timber screens, the stone door frames and the roof. A handful of these houses in the old district have been restored as small hotels, and staying in one is much quieter than the arcaded lanes a few blocks away.
Foshan’s old core grew up around the pottery trade, the iron foundries and the ancestral temple, and the merchants and master craftsmen who prospered built houses of this type in the lanes behind the commercial streets. The plan has two features worth knowing before booking. The first is the courtyard, which is functional rather than decorative: it lights and ventilates the middle of a long, narrow plot, and it drains the rain away under the paving. The second is the 冷巷 lěng xiàng, the cool alley, a narrow shaded passage along one side that pulls air through the house, which is why these buildings are noticeably more comfortable in a delta summer than their unshaded neighbours. Restoration has varied in quality across the district, so it is worth asking what was original.
What the Rooms Are Like
Where your room sits in the plan determines the stay. Rooms on the main hall side are the largest and the most formal, with the carved screens and the high ceiling; side rooms are narrower and lower; rooms nearest the entrance hear the lane through the door. All of them open onto the courtyard rather than a corridor, which means crossing open air to reach some bathrooms and hearing the rain on the paving. Windows tend to be small and timber-framed, so daylight comes mainly from the court and the rooms are genuinely dark at midday, which most guests find restful. Air conditioning has been added in nearly all of them, and in a stone and timber house the heating in winter is the thing to ask about.
Practicalities
Price. A double room runs roughly ¥280 to ¥650 a night, with main-hall rooms at the top of the range. Some houses rent the whole courtyard to a group and a few offer a discount for two rooms taken together on the same side. Rates hold through the winter high season and soften in the wet summer.
Address. The restored courtyard houses sit in the lanes behind the main streets of 禅城 Chánchéng, within walking distance of 祖庙 Zǔmiào, 梁园 Liáng Yuán and the market streets of the old core, and a short taxi ride from the pottery quarter at 石湾 Shíwān.
Rooms. Ask whether the room opens onto the courtyard or a corridor, which side of the court it faces, and whether the bathroom is inside the room or across the open air. Ask about heating and about hot water, since a cold-vaulted old house needs both to be deliberate. If there is an upper floor, ask whether it is original or added, because a whole storey built over an old courtyard is a different building to sleep in.
Getting there. The old core is in 禅城 Chánchéng, about twenty minutes by taxi from 佛山站 Fóshān Zhàn, around forty minutes from 广州南站 Guǎngzhōu Nán Zhàn by metro and taxi, and within reach of 广州白云国际机场 Guǎngzhōu Báiyún Guójì Jīchǎng in about an hour. The lanes are narrow and closed to through traffic, so a taxi will stop on the nearest main street and you will walk the last stretch.
flowcloud would say that a courtyard house makes the guest choose between light and quiet, and that the people who sleep best in one are those who decide on the first morning that the dark is the point.
Where to stay: in a restored courtyard house in the lanes of 禅城 Chánchéng, in a room that opens onto the court rather than a corridor, ideally on the main hall side. Confirm before booking whether the bathroom is en suite, whether the house has real heating for a delta winter, and whether the upper floor is original, and ask the hosts to leave the courtyard light on in the evening, because the rooms themselves go dark early.