Xiguan Ancient Houses

Xiguan is a name given by old Guangzhou locals. It includes Liwan district in downtown: Nishimura in the north, Pearl River in the south, Renmin Road in the east and North River in the west. In the ancient times this district is located outside of West Gate in Guangzhou. In this neighborhood there were many old and traditional houses, known as "Xiguan Big Ancient Mansion". In the past, these old houses were mostly occupied by wealthy and powerful families.

It is a kind of conventional dwelling houses built by wealthy businessmen in "Xiguan Corner" (today's Liwan District) in the late Qing Dynasty. These houses are all with Lingnan characteristics. Xiguan Mansion is large and bright, well-decorated. On each side of the mansion, there is a Qingyun Lane, taking its meaning from “a meteoric rise”. This kind of lanes is also known as secluded lanes, fire-proof lanes, water lanes, etc. They own the functions of ventilation, fire prevention, drainage, day lighting, air-cure, transportation, planting flowers and trees etc.

Xiguan had been a business center of Guangzhou City in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The West Point was formed in the regime of Tongzhi (1862-1874) and Guangxu (1875-1908) in the Qing Dynasty. It includes Wenchang Bridge, Grand Bridge, Pan Pond, Chang-Hua Garden and the surrounding area. Xiguan Mansion gathers in Baohua Road, Duobao Road, Baoyuan Road and Fengyuan Road. It later extended to other parts of the West Point, mostly built by notable families, the bureaucracy and wealthy businessmen.

Structural Features:
Xiguan Mansion mostly has masonry-timber structure and a base of black bricks. The tall front door is inlaid with granite. Its layout is designed according to the traditional style of the main central room in Central Plains, basically stretched in the further vertical direction.

The typical layout includes three living rooms and two corridors, bilaterally symmetrical. The main hall is in the middle. The axis is from the front to the back and then from the south to the north, followed by the porch, entrance hall (Men Guanting), palanquin Hall (Tea Room), the main hall (Hall lobby or the gods), the first room (the elder rooms), patio, the subordinate hall (dining room), subordinate bedrooms (Weifang).

On the left side and the front of the wing-rooms there is a study and a small yard. On the right side there is the wing-hall and guestroom. On the top of the guestrooms there is the rooftop, used as a place for cooling, watching the moon and ladies in Xiguan to pray to the moon in the Double-Seventh Day, etc. In the back of the wing-rooms and guestrooms there are bedrooms, kitchen and so on. Flowers and trees are planted in the garden, where there is a pond with rockery, quite elegant and quiet.

The porch of Xiguan Mansion is well-decorated. There are three kinds of doors: breviped ceiling-fan door (also known as corner gate), wade cage and hardwood door. Wade cage is a movable fence, consisting of 13 or 15 hard round batten (typically redwood or hardwood). It is horizontally opened, thus gaining the name of “wade cage”. The corner gate and wade cage have the functions of ventilation and ensuring security. It is a kind of building components which is specially designed in order to adapt to the hot and wet climate in Lingnan.

The front gates of Xiguan Mansion are made of superior wood such as redwood and camphorwood, which are 8 cm (0.2625 ft) in thickness. The knockers are copper rings. The feet of the door are hid in the stone mortars. The back of the door is buckled with transverse bars so as to prevent thieves.

Recent Condition:
Xiguan Mansion is a treasure of traditional architecture in Guangzhou. The number of existing Xiguan Mansion has turned into less than 100 from over 800 in the period of great prosperity in the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and the beginning of the twentieth century, and only 10 of them have conservation value.