pailou

Just before entering Han Yüan Kai, where we spent the night, we passed under a very beautiful "pailou," or memorial arch, built of stone and elaborately carved with spirited figures representing historic scenes.

A Wayfarer in China Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia Elizabeth Kimball Kendall

A traditional pailou, or archway, made at Tushanwan in the early 1910s.

Getting Jesuitical in Shanghai 2010

The half-original pailou dominates a new glass atrium at the entrance, flanked by works which also were sent to Expos in the early 20th century

Getting Jesuitical in Shanghai 2010

The centerpiece is an ornate traditional gate, or pailou, made at Tushanwan in the early 1910s and exhibited in several World's Fairs.

Getting Jesuitical in Shanghai 2010

I have heard of a pailou in Kwangtung province in honour of a woman marked out among women for her years, her goodness, and above all for her many descendants, who numbered six sons, forty grandsons, one hundred and twenty-one great-grandsons and two great-great-grandsons.

A Wayfarer in China Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia Elizabeth Kimball Kendall

At one village I stopped to photograph a fine pailou, not to the "virtuous official" this time, but to the "virtuous widow."

A Wayfarer in China Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia Elizabeth Kimball Kendall