Jingtang Library

The library offers the following resources: • Digital Reading Room () • Newspapers and Periodicals Reading Room () • Braille Material Service Room () • "Love-Tree" Story Room () • Exhibition Hall () • Book Check-in/Check-out Room () • Diversity Reading Room () • Children's Book Check-in/Check-out Room () • Special Collection Reading Room () • Class Room () • Study Room () • Xinhui Public Forum () • Multi-function Hall () • Huo Zongjie Reading Room () == Collections ==

There are a substantial number of collections in the library, including Local history, documents of the history of Overseas Chinese, genealogy books, etc. For instance, the library is keeping Wan Guo Shi Ji (, The Record of World History, Hua Guotang, 1900), and Da Xue Yan Yi Tong Lve (, the 43rd year of the Jiajing Emperor in the Ming dynasty). Most of the old books were collected from communities and families. In the 1950s, Xinhui District organized a collection activity to search for old books from communities and families, to register and preserve those collections in the library. There are also collections like resources of Overseas Chinese including 20 types of papers dating back to the time before the establishment of the People's Republic of China. For example, the library has Siyi Newspaper (, 1917) and Gangzhou Weekly News (, 1925), which recorded the history of Xinhui District like Sun Ning Railway (). Alternatively, there are collections dating back to nearly 900 years ago when Song dynasty was migrating to the south. For instance, the library has kept some Guqin music sheet like Gu Gang Zhe Hu Music Sheet (). The library also collects more than 910 genealogy books for up to 68 family names. == History ==

The Jingtang Library was established by Fung Ping Shan. Fung Ping Shan (1860-1931) was born in jiangmenXinhui District. At the age of 16, he moved to Siam (old name of Thailand) for a living. After experiencing success in business, Fung focused on the field of education. In Hong Kong, he donated to build The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library (), The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce Library. And in Xinhui District, he had established Fung Ping Shan Private School, Woodworking School, and Ping Shan Primary School (). He purchased Tan Mansion in Renshou Road (譚家大屋, a mansion pre-owned by family Tan) and demolished it to build the library. The library was completed in 1925 for an area of 1,250 m2 (13,454.89 ft²), and opened to public in June. File:Unveiling Ceremony of Mr. Feng Jingtang, 1929.2.15.jpg|Unveiling Ceremony of Feng Jingtang in 1929 File:Earliest Clerks of Jingtang Library.jpg|Earliest Clerks of Jingtang Library File:Backyard of Jingtang Library, 1933.jpg|Backyard of Jingtang Library in 1933 File:Distant View of Jingtang Library (front), 1933.jpg|Distant View of Jingtang Library (on the front) in 1933 By 1938, the collections in the library reached 65,945 books. After the Second Sino-Japanese War, when the Xinhui District was occupied, Fung Ping-Wah () and Fung Ping-fan, sons of Fung Ping Shan, assisted the library to evacuate and reopen in Luokeng () and Lingchong () as branch libraries. In 1939, due to clerks' leaving, branch library of Luokeng was closed and combined into branch library of Luochong. Another branch library, the Tianting branch library (), was established in 1941. Until 1949, Jingtang Library was reopened again. In 1988, Fung Ping-fan donated to the library for refurbishment as well as extension of new building (). The new building enlarged the area of the library by 4,030 m2 (43,378.56 ft²). In 2012, Huo Zongjie () donated to build the Huo Zongjie Reading Room to further expand the library. Right now, the total area of the library is 6,510 m2 (70073.05 ft²), with more than 400,000 books in its collection. File:Garden of Jingtang Library in 2021 (2).jpg|Garden of Jingtang Library in 2021 File:Garden of Jingtang Library in 2021 (1).jpg|Garden of Jingtang Library in 2021 File:Backyard of Jingtang Library in 2021.jpg|Backyard of Jingtang Library in 2021 File:Garden of Jingtang Library in 2021.jpg|Garden of Jingtang Library in 2021 ==See also==