Gatherings | Julong Bay: A Seat by the River

From 10 to 12 January 2025, Local Landscape (在地文化) held the Julong Tide Craft Fair in Julong Bay, Liwan, Guangzhou. Craft stalls went up along the Dachongkou Creek, performances followed one another in front of Yuling Bridge, and at dusk butterfly lights glowed in the grass. For three days the old creek was busy again.

Along the bank stood a row of Dak Haan's Half-Hundred% Outdoor Lounge Chairs in eco-stone; by the lawn stage were fabric Half-Hundred% Lounge Chairs.

Yuling Bridge dates from the mid-Qing dynasty. Built of granite, it is an important relic on the creek by today's Dachongkou station on Metro Line 11. In its heyday hundreds of teahouses, pharmacies and dry-goods shops lined both banks; scholars from the nearby Jinzhou Academy crossed here by boat when they came home in honour; and it was the finishing line of dragon-boat races, which earned it the name "Dragon Gate".

An old bridge, banyans, dragon boats, the century-old Julong Village. Winter sun came through the leaves onto the water and dappled the backdrop of the stage.

More than twenty stalls spread along the water: stationery, jewellery, homeware, pet goods, clothing, fragrance, bringing the small rituals of city life to the riverside. Browsing the market ended, as it should, with a coffee under a banyan, looking at the view.

Under the banyans, the workshops were full of eager "future craftspeople" every day: pottery on the first day, wick-woven mushrooms on the second, and on the last, a hand-painted sign with a New Year wish.

Through the market, eco-stone seats designed by Zhou Anbin were set out in order along the bank: the Half-Hundred% Outdoor Lounge Chair — Eco-Stone. Half-Hundred% began as Zhou Anbin's 2021 design: take out the frame normally hidden inside a sofa, weave the seat and back from straps, and stand it on crossed boards. The outdoor version is made of eco-stone, and it stayed by the river, under the banyans.

Tired visitors sat down with the banyans behind them and the creek in front. A moment's rest became part of the scenery on both banks.

By the lawn stage stood several more Half-Hundred% Lounge Chairs with yellow bases and blue woven straps, the fabric version.

Some older visitors came too. Sitting under a banyan, one told a young person beside them, "Our home used to be right over there."

The renovated Dachongkou drainage station, in one corner of the fair, was hosting an exhibition on the history of Julong Village at the same time. Ancestral halls, villages, warehouses, factories: the city renews itself again and again, yet Julong Village and the Dachong Creek, once a Lingnan water town, have found more varied and more inclusive possibilities in rebuilt public space.

A chair left by the river is perhaps public space at its plainest: anyone passing can sit.

The pieces were being assembled on a wooden frame. The light legs and sides stood first, then the blue-grey seat and back were set into them.

Two newly assembled chairs stood side by side on the workbench, their light frames holding the holed seats and backs. Up close, the back panel is a deeper blue, with a pale edge left around it.

Designer Zhou Anbin was at the factory too. He stood beside one of the newly assembled Half-Hundred% Lounge Chairs, looking down to adjust it.