Yantai Folk Custom Museum

Shandong


It's really the architecture that's the big draw at this museum, housed in an amazing guild hall built between 1884 and 1906 by arrivals from Fujian (福建, Fújiàn). In the centre of the courtyard is a spectacularly intricate, decorated gate. Supported by 22 pillars, it's adorned with hundreds of carved and painted figures, phoenixes and other beasties, depicting classic folk tales including The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea.

The centerpiece is the Hall of the Heavenly Goddess, where the goddess Tianhou is surrounded by a set of tin instruments in the shapes of gourds and tiny mice, crawling dragons and dragon heads.