The Schoolhouse was an abandoned and dilapidated primary school and agricultural storage facility until founders Liang Tang & Jim Spear revitalized the site as a restaurant and hot glass workshop in 2006.

Village Renaissance
Village Renaissance
Village Renaissance
Village Renaissance

The enterprise flourished until 2016 when a state-owned company took over the approach to Mutianyu and restricted entry in order to force tourists to take shuttle busses through our village and up to the Great Wall.

The other projects that Liang & Jim started through The Schoolhouse, including our boutique hotel & spa, Brickyard Retreat, have continued to prosper. We remain committed to our local communities in Bohai Township and to our ideal of social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

The Schoolhouse Arts Center

The Schoolhouse has now been reinvented again as an Arts Center with studios and galleries for the use of our Schoolhouse Fellows and Resident Artists. The campus also includes Liang’s textile workshop, Jim’s Spear Designs glass and furnishings studio, and to-the-trade display rooms offering one of a kind art pieces and furnishings for interior decoration. Some studios may also be available for rental to artists and craftspeople looking for a serene environment to create their works.

Visits to The Schoolhouse Arts Center are by prior appointment only. We can arrange case by case special permission for our visitors to drive past the traffic control point to The Schoolhouse. Please contact us.

The Schoolhouse Arts Center
The Schoolhouse Arts Center
The Schoolhouse Arts Center
The Schoolhouse Arts Center

Exclusive Dining & Event Venues

The Schoolhouse continues to offer exclusive venues for dining and for events for groups of 24 to 120 guests from April to October each year. Brickyard Retreat manages and operates this service and welcomes enquiries.

In the future we do expect to reopen an intimate cafe at The Schoolhouse so please do check back here on our website or sign up for our newsletter to get all of our news from Mutianyu.

Exclusive Dining & Event Venues
Exclusive Dining & Event Venues
Exclusive Dining & Event Venues
Exclusive Dining & Event Venues