The Guangyu Ancestral Hall in Conghua has won the top prize of the Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Culture Heritage Conservation this year, reports Guangzhou Daily.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization praised the co-operation of "local villagers, government agencies and technical advisors" in preserving the building despite a limited budget.

The descendants of Lu Xiufu worshipped their ancestors at the Guangyu Ancestral Hall. Lu Xiufu was a heroic prime minister in the Southern Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD). His descendants eventually had to flee to Guangdong where they set up Qiangqing Village in Taiping Town. The 600-year-old ancestral hall is representative of the architectural style that would have been prevalent in the area at that time.

Yangtze River water towns in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces (Zhouzhuang, Tongli, Luzhi, Nanxun, Wuzheng and Xitang), Canqiao Historical Street in Shaoxing of Zhejiang Province, Hong Kong's Catholic Cathedral of Immaculate Conception and Taipei's Dalongdong Baoan Temple also received awards.

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