Soviet Department Store Building

Guangdong


This weather-beaten, three-storey building just opposite Chayang Guesthouse (茶陽賓館, Cháyáng Bīnguăn) was a department store built in the 1950s with Soviet funds. Patches of yellow paint still cling onto its facade, and you can make out Mao-era slogans on its red pillars.

If you walk along the river and cross the bridge, then go straight, turn left and walk to the end of the road, you’ll see the stunning Xuan Villa (旋庐).


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Guangdong attractions

2. Xuan Villa

0.36 MILES

Foreboding and beautiful Xuan Villa was built in 1936 by a wealthy Malaysian-Chinese member of a secret society tied to Sun Yatsen. Parts of the building…

3. Zhongchuan Village

9.97 MILES

This is the ancestral home of the Burmese-Chinese businessman Aw Boon Haw, inventor of the medicinal salve Tiger Balm and owner of (in)famously quirky Haw…

4. Haw Par Villa

10.03 MILES

The Tiger Balm magnate built three museums, in Singapore, Hong Kong and here, his birthplace. The photos and newspaper clippings of the founder's family…

5. Jíqìng Lóu

11.24 MILES

This 600-year-old tǔlóu was built without using a single nail and is still pretty intact. It now houses an exhibition hall.

6. Qĭnán Villa

16.14 MILES

Lack of upkeep and old age (it dates from early 18th century) mean Qinan Villa looks a bit like a princeling-turned-pauper. The stone carvings around its…

7. Zhaoqing Hall

16.14 MILES

Inhabited by the third and fourth generations of the founder, a pharmaceutical merchant, this balmy courtyard residence (c 1914) features stone, wood and…

8. Haiyuan Inn

16.15 MILES

An eye-catching, early-20th-century mansion, the Haiyuan Inn combines Southeast Asian features, Western details and the attributes of a hakka (走马楼; zǒumǎ…