Chengkan village in Huizhou District, Anhui province is famous for the residential architecture of the Ming and Qing style. Baolun Hall in the Ancestral Temple of Luo's, built during the Jiaqing's reign, is a representative collection of typical Huizhou architecture.
The temple covers an area of 5 mu (1/3 hectare). Baolun Hall was well-designed and constructed with extreme delicacy. Through the first entrance, visitors reach "Tianjing" - a square dooryard with rooms on each side designed for enough lighting and draught. Secondly, comes a great hall, in which four vermilion posts support the timber frame. Further across a yard is the main hall - Baolun Hall.
The design of this timber frame hall is delicate and unique. Exquisite engravings of flowers and geometric pattern on the bluestone parapets and creative colored paintings on the beams, lintels and doorframe lure many foreign visitors. The colors remain bright and fresh although throughout ages. A pair of wooden staircases ascend to the second floor on which through the finely engraved casements, visitors can have a perspective of the Huangshan mountains.
The residential houses in Chengkan village are of high value on the research of China's folk architecture and have been designated as a provincial preservation.
