Originally known simply as the Great Mansion, the Official Hall got its current name because the Wu clan used it to receive visiting government officials. Legend holds that Wu Chunxi built it with gold unearthed from eight hidden cellars. Tall sealed walls enclose the compound, with a three-foot-wide man-made water channel along the inner perimeter reserved for women to do laundry. Built in the Nine Halls and Eighteen Courtyards pattern, it adopts a five-row layout with a front pond and rear tower. The front moon pond carries three layers of meaning: first, water restrains fire in feng shui; second, all courtyards drain rainwater into the pond, echoing the Huizhou architectural concept of "four waters returning to the main hall"; third, it symbolizes that wealth stays within the family and fortune flows endlessly inward. The spacious outer and inner courtyards were reserved for officials to dismount and alight from sedan chairs. Horizontal plaques above the outer gate and main hall read "Uphold governance and peace inherited from our forefathers" and "Rival the stature of Mount Dou", expressing the owner’s ambition to carry forward the legacy of statecraft and nurture both literary and martial talents among later generations. Stone memorial tablets erected in the ninth year of the Qianlong reign by Wu Yong and Wu Jian, holders of the provincial imperial examination title, stand on both courtyards. In the twenty-eighth year of Qianlong’s reign, Ji Yun (Ji Xiaolan), chief compiler of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, toured Tingzhou Prefecture. Having heard Peitian in Xuanhe River was celebrated across Tinglian as a village of scholars, he doubted whether this small mountain hamlet deserved such fame. Disguised as a county education official, he stopped his sedan chair at the Official Hall for a private visit. He was profoundly moved by the imposing couplets and plaques such as "Dragons rise and phoenixes soar", as well as the profound cultural refinement of Peitian’s Hakka residents. The Official Hall boasts a unique, ingenious layout. The main hall features tiered steps known as the Imperial Staircase, with strict regulations for officials of different ranks, openly manifesting the rigid feudal hierarchy. The latticed partition panels in the middle hall carry nine layers of gilded openwork carvings: Phoenix Facing the Sun, Dragon and Tiger Leaping, Nobility and Blessings, and Peacock Spreading its Tail. Cantilever beams bear gilded reliefs of the Eight Treasures and the carp leaping over the Dragon Gate. Every floral carving on the beams and crossbeams is symmetrical double-sided openwork, demonstrating breathtaking craftsmanship. The rear hall served as the clan council chamber. The left and right flower halls were private lounges for the host to receive guests. The ground floor functioned as a school, while the upper floor housed a library that once held more than ten thousand ancient books, unfortunately all burned down during the Cultural Revolution. During the Wenfang and Songmaoling Battles shortly before the Central Red Army marched north, the Official Hall became the Red Army headquarters. Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Tan Zhenlin, Lin Biao, Luo Binghui and other leaders held key military meetings here. The 9th Red Army Corps departed from this compound afterward, making Peitian one of the staging points before the Long March began.

Divided by the one-kilometer ancient street, most ancestral shrines cluster on the inner side. More than thirty ancestral halls line the street from the village entrance, including shrines dedicated to Ancestors Tianyi, Yinnan, Guolong, Yuyang, Henggong, Jiugong, Zaichong, Weiyan, Le’an, Jinjiang, Nancun and Wengui; twenty-one of them remain well-preserved today. A defining feature of Peitian’s ancestral shrines is their elaborate gatehouses, following the local maxim: "The hall accounts for three-tenths, while the gatehouse makes up seven-tenths of the building." Tiered brackets uphold carved stone pillars, supporting upturned flying eaves. Red painted gates, colorfully decorated timber columns, gilded horizontal plaques and painted wooden murals lend the shrines extraordinary splendor. The shrines of Ancestor Henggong and Ancestor Jiugong replicate the architectural style of the Meridian Gate in the Forbidden City. Their meticulous colored murals depicting Mother Educating the Young Prince and Top Scholar Parading through the Streets feature sharp lines, lifelike figures and unfading pigments, ranking them among rare art treasures. Inside the balustrades of the main gate, the left corridor is painted with the xiezhi (mythical justice beast) and the right with a qilin (auspicious unicorn), symbolizing impartiality, good fortune and wealth accumulation. These motifs reflect the spiritual aspirations of the Hakka people.

Academy complexes form a vital component of Peitian’s ancient architectural heritage. This tradition stems from the core belief of Peitian’s Hakka ancestors: farming and scholarship were the two righteous paths in life. They upheld the motto "Literature reshapes nature; loyalty and filial piety build a virtuous future", and strove to reform themselves and the natural world through knowledge, serving the nation with loyalty and governing families with filial piety. During the Chenghua reign of the Ming Dynasty, the seventh-generation ancestor Wu Zukuan cleared trees and grass to establish the Shitouqiu Cottage. He hired Xie Taoxi, a successful metropolitan examination candidate, to tutor a small group of students. Though modest in scale, this school became the pioneer of scholarly learning across the thirteen hamlets of Heyuan. Guided by the family tradition of integrity and erudition, and sustained by relentless perseverance, the cottage gradually expanded its premises and enrolled more students. With a broad, in-depth curriculum, it eventually evolved into the renowned Nanshan Academy. From the seventh year of the Shunzhi reign to the thirtieth year of the Qianlong reign, the academy cultivated 191 xiucai provincial scholars. Among them, 19 entered officialdom: seven reached the fifth rank, and one rose all the way to the third rank. Pei Yingzhang, Minister of War in the Ming Dynasty, visited the academy and wrote an admiring couplet: "Though a hundred li away from Tingzhou City, this is the foremost household in Confucian learning." Zeng Ruichun, a Hanlin Academy bachelor, praised Nanshan Academy by saying it rivaled the Deer Valley and Ehu academies where Zhu Xi once delivered lectures. By the late Ming Dynasty, Peitian — classified as a scholarly district in Xuanheli — had founded Shibeishan Academy, Yunjiang Academy, Ziyang Academy and Dengtian School. By the late Qing Dynasty, the village formed a balanced education system with Nanshan Academy for literary studies and Banruo Hall for martial arts training. Moreover, Peitian’s ancestors valued women’s education and the inheritance of folk crafts. They built the Rongxi Residence and Xiuzhu Tower. The Rongxi Residence operated as a women’s clan school spanning three dynasties, where female students studied academics and even discussed social customs. The Xiuzhu Tower focused on craft exchange; most of Peitian’s exquisite skills in masonry, woodwork, carving, sculpture and paper-cutting were passed down here. Accompanied by Peitian’s literati, Ji Xiaolan toured these academies. Witnessing the ancient Central Plains tradition of farming and studying, he looked past the mountains and linked this remote village to the Forbidden City, inscribing the plaque "Talents flourish beside the Bohai Sea" — one of thousands of famous plaques left by celebrities in Peitian. Few regions across the whole country could match Peitian in the Ming and Qing dynasties for the quantity, diversified functions and strict academic management of its schools. Distinguished teachers including Xie Taoxi, Qiu Zhenfang and Zeng Ruichun nurtured hundreds of outstanding talents such as Wu Changtong, Wu Bazhen and Wu Tun, leaving a lasting mark on history.

Nearly all ancient buildings in Peitian face southeast with their backs toward the northwest. They overlook Bijia Mountain in the front and lean against Wolong Hill at the rear. Their design was deeply shaped by contemporary politics, economy, natural environment and traditional feng shui theories. The architecture retains Ming Dynasty structural norms while absorbing styles from the Central Plains, Huizhou and the Jiangzhe region. The buildings feature wider bays and deeper halls, prioritizing artistic shape and exquisite craftsmanship, while the layout emphasizes comfort for both scholars and merchants. Indoors, bright partition walls, hollowed-out lattice windows, flower beds and fish ponds create elegant aesthetics, complemented by paintings and calligraphy propagating Confucian ethics. The whole compound fosters a virtuous learning environment, highlighting the four cardinal virtues and eight moral principles to govern clans and villages with morality.

Thanks to scientific planning, delicate design and superb craftsmanship, Peitian’s ancient architectural complex has earned acclaim from experts as the Folk Forbidden City and a magnificent masterpiece of Hakka architecture in China. It stands as the spiritual homeland for wandering Hakka ancestors, a living archive of Chinese civilization over recent centuries, and an invaluable historical and cultural treasure of the Chinese nation.