Qingxu Festooned Archways: Magnificent Archways Full of Good Wishes

Qingxu festooned archway [Photo via the Publicity Department of the CPC Taiyuan Municipal Committee]

Qingxu festooned archways is a comprehensive art integrating ancient folk architecture techniques, folk art, folk painting and folk handicraft techniques, and it was included in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative List in 2011.

According to the legend, Qingxu festooned archways originated in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), when Qingxu County was called Qingyuan County which had prosperous economy with convenient transportation and various shops. When the New Year's Day and other festivals came, people gathered cypress leaves in the nearby mountains, tied them on bamboo poles and wooden sticks, and then inserted them on the highest part of the roof of their homes to pray for their shops' prosperity and their family's health from evils in the coming year. In the Song Dynasty, the festooned archways were developed to have ornamental value with a few door poles tied with cypress leaf branches hanging in front of people's own doors, and festive and auspicious couplets pasted on both sides of the doors. Qingxu festooned archways is now a splendid cultural heritage through continuous development.

Qingxu festooned archway [Photo via the Publicity Department of the CPC Taiyuan Municipal Committee]

The development of Qingxu festooned archways is the record and embodiment of the folk culture in Qingxu area, a special expression of Qingxu people's aspiration for a better life, and it also shows the increasingly developed local economy and trade.