#Caizishen Ancient Dwellings Buildings Travel Recommendations for 2024 (Updated in May)
Historical Sites
Historical Architectures
Address:
Yuli Village, Guanqiao Town, Nan'an City
Opening times:
Open today at 9:00-17:00Opening Soon
Recommended sightseeing time:
2-3 hours
Min Nan residential houses
The Cai family ancient residential complex is located in Guanqiao Zhangli Village, Nan'an City, Fujian Province. It was built by the overseas Chinese Cai Qian from the Philippines. The construction started in the fifth year of the Xianfeng era of the Qing Dynasty (1855) and was completed in the thirty-third year of the Guangxu era (1907), spanning 52 years. It covers an area of 16,000 square meters and has a total of 400 rooms of various sizes. The Cai family ancient residential complex faces south with a northern orientation. Each residence has either two or three sections, with protective side buildings or east and west wing rooms. The main structures feature hip-and-gable and rolling shed style roofs, covered with red tiles and tubular tiles, swallowtail-shaped ridges, mortise and tenon wooden frames, and beautifully carved beams and painted rafters. Each large house is an independent unit, yet they are connected by stone paths made of granite strips. These stone paths serve as walkways, as well as places for drying grains and resting in the shade. The entire complex is orderly and transparent, with a clever layout, reflecting the main characteristics of traditional Min Nan residential architecture during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
language:
marcellathornfield85
Min Nan Architecture Grand View Garden, it would be a pity to miss this place when you go to Quanzhou
After leaving the Cizao Kiln site, I went straight to the most anticipated Cai's ancient residential building complex today. The residential complex is located in Zhangli Village, Guanqiao Town, built by Cai Qian, a Chinese overseas in the Philippines, from the fifth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (1855) to the thirty-third year of Guangxu (1907), which took 52 years to complete.
According to the introduction, the builder of Cai's ancient residential buildings, Cai Zishen, set off from Nan'an, Quanzhou, went south to the Philippines to make a living, and after becoming the richest man in the Philippines, he returned to his hometown, led his clan to build the ancient houses, which is now the famous Cai's ancient residential buildings at home and abroad. It is said that at its peak, Cai's ancient residential buildings had five rooms and three courtyards, plus left and right guard houses, with more than 400 rooms in total.
Today's Cai's ancient residential building complex faces north to south, each residential building is two or three entrances, the main building is hard mountain and roll shed style roof, covered with red tiles and tube tiles, swallowtail shaped ridge, through bucket style wooden frame, carved beams and painted buildings. From the perspective of unmanned aerial vehicle, the huge red brick building complex is dotted with clusters of green shade, the whole scale is larger than imagined.
The residential complex was built from east to west, with 10 large houses on the east side of the core area, which is almost a vertical square structure; there are 8 large houses on the west side, which is almost a horizontal square layout; in the far north, there are world houses and world cut houses where the clan live.
Entering Cai's residential building complex is like entering a maze, walking through the lanes, often feel that the houses look similar, but if you observe carefully, their carved beams and painted buildings are different, not only preserving a large number of stone carvings, brick carvings, wood carvings, clay sculptures, but also many interesting calligraphy paintings on the stone blocks of the porch and the partition of the hall.
Especially the content of the plaque inscription is very worth savoring, some are excerpts from the works of predecessors, some are created by the inscriber himself, mainly involving ancestral origins, family teachings and maxims. Among them, many are praises left by literati and scholars after visiting Cai's ancient residential buildings. For example, on the east and west walls of Cai Qian's porch, you can see the stone tablet of 'Family education has a real source, Meng leads a book to inherit four sons; Village residence has many victories, famous mountains thousands of feet into five peaks'.
What makes me most happy is that there is still a rare life atmosphere in Cai's ancient residential building complex today, and the original residents are not relocated because it has been developed into a tourist attraction, and walking in such still living ancient buildings can better feel the traces of time passing, not just looking back at the past, but a kind of inheritance over the years.
🏠Name | Cai's Ancient Residential Building Complex
🎫Ticket | 15 yuan
⛳Address | Zhangli Village, Guanqiao Town, Nan'an City, Quanzhou City
🚗Transportation | Navigation 'Cai's Ancient Residential Building Complex'