| Hu
Xue-yan House (1872) other
sites in Hangzhou |
Hangzhou, China |
Click on an image to enlarge
The residence of Hu Xueyan, a wealthy businessman from Hangzhou in the late 1800’s, is located in southern Hangzhou not far from shore of West Lake. Hu originally made his fortune as a banker, but expanded his business to pawnbroker, import-export, real estate, and finally made is biggest fortune as the founder of a Chinese herbal medicine company. He built his house in 1872, and it was a huge complex and covers at least a couple of acres. Included in that area are extensive garden areas, a huge complex of artificial caves, and all sorts of rooms for family, servants, guests, eating, reading, etc. The majority of the buildings were built of a dark brown wood that looks very similar to teak, but one large section of buildings is built of a lighter honey-colored wood. Hu’s descendants mortgaged the house and lost it after his death and it passed though a series of owners until the provincial government acquired it, restored it, and turned it into a museum of sorts. It opened to the public just last year.
Below: Plan of the house with select views
Bibliography
All images copyright 2001 Professor
Kerk L. Phillips of Brigham Young University, Utah, USA.
Visit his webpage at www.pomosa.com