Many overseas Chinese houses in South District have been renovated. [File photo/Zhongshan Daily]

South District, known as overseas Chinese hometown, has more than 2,000 houses of overseas Chinese that integrate Chinese and western styles.

In recent years, many people take active part in the renovation of overseas Chinese houses and put these obsolete houses back into use, thereby attracting tourists.

Walking into the Bosheng Thuja Art Museum on Anqian Street in Longhuan Village, numerous thuja root carvings in different shapes come into view.

This is a house built by overseas Chinese around the 1920s and was previously rented to migrant workers.

Since 2016, Xu Zhengguang, a resident in Longhuan Village, contacted Liang Shoubin, an overseas Chinese born in the same village, to rent his ancestral house and transformed it into an art museum exhibiting thuja root carvings. The Liang's family is full of praise for Xu Zhengguang's transformation.

"Since the Longhuan Village guided tour was launched, quite a few ordinary people have equally come to visit my art museum," said Xu Zhengguang. 

In August this year, local designer Liu Junjie broke the silence of South Zhukun Street in Beitai Village with a creative exhibition of local cultural creativity.

South Zhukun Street is named after Yang Xianyi's father, with several overseas Chinese houses scattered in the streets and lanes. In the middle, two small foreign-style buildings which nestle against each other look more fashionable compared with surrounding houses with tile roofs.

They are owned by a distant relative of Liu Junjie and have been managed by Liu Junjie's father for many years.

Liu Junjie referred to some ancient architectural exhibition halls in Guangzhou and transformed the houses into a showroom focused on local creative design. The first exhibition was the Sun Yat-sen Cultural Creative Exhibition done by him and his team.

"Every weekend, young people will come to South Zhukun Street to experience the charm of local design. They can also visit Yang Xianyi's Former Residence and Sister Yan's Tea House not far away," said Liu Junjie.

Liu Junjie is now planning the second design exhibition in the hall. He plans to launch a local design exhibition themed with Chinese tunic suit .

In addition to private use, some communities also transform overseas Chinese houses into public spaces to offer residents different forms of public welfare services.

For example, volunteer service project "Green and Happy Reading Bar" is now open in the Ma Yingbiao Memorial Hall in Shachong Village of Liangdu Community in South District for parent-child reading activities.

South District also plans in the future to turn Liaohou Village into a pilot demonstration site for overseas Chinese housing renovation, renovate the ancient city walls and watchtowers, transform the old newspaper offices into reading rooms, introduce high-quality homestay businesses, form a full-chain closed leisure tourism area, and pilot a batch of cultural tourism projects.