First built in 1807, the Huguang Guild Hall (hú guǎng hùi guǎn 湖广会馆) is located on the south of Hufang Bridge (hǔ fǎng qiáo 虎坊桥), Xuanwu District (xuān wǔ qū 宣武区) in Beijing (běi jīng 北京). With a long history of nearly 200 years, the Huguang Guild Hall is regarded as one of the ten greatest wooden theatres of the world. It is the only existing guild hall with a theatre in Beijing.

The entire complex of Huguang Guild Hall covers an area of 2800 square meters, including Opera Building (dà xì lóu大戏楼), Wenchang Pavilion (wén chāng gé 文昌阁), Baoshan Hall (bǎo shàn táng 宝善堂), Xiangxian Temple (xiāng xián cí 乡贤祠), Chuwan Hall (chǔ wǎn táng 楚畹堂) and Fengyu Huairen Hall (fēng yǔ huái rén guǎn 风雨怀人馆). The Huguang Guild Hall also contains a small museum which exhibits the theatre's rich history of Beijing opera. There is a well called Ziwu Well (zǐ wǔ jǐng 子午井) in front of Xiangxian Temple. It is so called because the water in this well is sweet at 00:00 and 12:00 a.m while it is bitter at the other time.

The Huguang Guild Hall was primarily constructed as an assembly and accommodation venue for people from central China's Hubei (hú běi 湖北) and Hunan (hú nán 湖南) provinces. In 1912, Sun Yat-sen (sūn zhōng shān 孙中山) made public speech in this guild hall for five times, and on 25th, August, he presided over the conference for the founding of Kuomintang (guó mín dǎng 国民党) in the hall. Now it serves mainly as a Peking opera theater, as well as the location for the Beijing Traditional Opera Museum (běi jīng xì qǔ bó wù guǎn 北京戏曲博物馆).

The theatre is renowned for its magnificent interiors, which is coloured in red, green and gold, and decked out with tables and a stone floor. It is splendid and imposing with an antique flavor. Leading Beijing opera stars often give performances here. It is very cheerful to enjoy the opera while sipping tea in the theatre. Tourists also can enjoy dishes with Beijing flavor in Huguang Guild Hall.

Huguang Guild Hall
Address: No. 3 Hufang Road (hǔ fǎng lù 虎坊路), Xuanwu District
Admission: RMB 10
Tickets for opera: Green Seats ( both sides ):RMB 150/p.p
                         Red Seats ( middle section / 5-6 rows ): RMB 180/p.p
                         Blue Seats ( middle section / 1-4 rows ): RMB 240/p.p
Opening hours: Monday to Friday: 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m., 1:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
                        Opera performance is at 7:30 p.m. – 8:40 p.m.
Tel: 010-6351 8284
Traffic:
Bus: No. 5, 6, 7, 34, 23, 66, 102, 5, 6, 7, 34, 23, 66, 102, 105, 603, 715, 743
Subway: Southeast Entrace of Hepingmen Station, and then take No. 15, 66 bus