Brief introduction to Chen Cihong Former Residence

Chen Cihong Former Residence was first built in the year 1910. Several generations in the Chen family went on constructing the residence with painstaking effort for nearly half a century. The residence consists of houses like: Lang Zhong Di, Shou Kang Li, Shan Ju Shi and Sn Lu. It occupies an area of 25,400 m², within which there are 506 halls and rooms altogether. The most typical house Shan Ju Shi was first built in 1930 and was under construction for 9 years till the time the Japanese captured Shantou. With an area of 6,861m², the house includes 202 halls and rooms. It is of the biggest size, the most brilliant designed and the most fully reserved among all the houses.

The building of Chen Cihong Former Residence is a good combination of Chinese and western element. Its body, built on the famous model of the "Four Horses Pulling a Cart", is accompanied with attics, pavillions, terrances, verandas and overhead corridors. When you enter this building, winding and lingering, you'll fell llike walking in a maze. It is said that, once there was a servant in Chen Cihong's family whose full time job was managing the windows of the whole building. Early every morning, he started to opening windows. Immediately when he finished opening all the windows, he began shutting them. And when he finished shutting all the windows, it was getting dark.

Chen Cihong Former Residence was constructured with the best of the Chinese and foreign building materials of the time, among which the imported glazed tiles were of dozens of types. Having fone through nearly a century, these glazed tiles remain their beautiful colors and designs. All doors and windows were decorated with plaster and glass, which look elegant and tasteful, refined and fallant.Flowers and lucky birds were the theme of the wood carvings and the stone sculpture which expressed good wishes for luck, happiness and wealth. Moreover, the stone inscriptions of the Chinese handwriting collocated in the residence were all masterpieces of the time. Every chacter in the inscriptions was precious and valuable and thus a "Living copybook" by many calligraphers was complied.

The host of Shan Ju Shi was Li Tong, the youngest son of Chen Cihong. As he passed away when he was very young, his wife took over most of the supervision work of the building of the house. Stories about Li Tong's wife and the building of the palatial house add a mythic color to the resisdence.

Through all vicissitudes, Chen Cihong Former Residence, whose value unrecognized for years, has turned over a new leaf. At present, on the basis of the original building, many additional sights rich in typical Chaoshan traditional culture have been established. They are: the Chen Cihong Family History Hall, the Red Fore Boat Sculpture, the Chaoshan Local Opera Theater, the Puppet Hall, the Chaoshan Bride Room, the Chaoshan Gongfu Teahouse, The Chaoshan Tradional Snack Counter, the Calligraphy and Painting Corridor, the Minature Carving Exhibition Hall and series of traditional Chaoshan Kitchens. What's more, the timing performance of the traditional folk dance "Twin Geese" is most enjoyable and enriches your tour.

The magnificent structure, a good combination of Chinese and western construction elements, the traditional Chaoshan folk-custom, the legend stories of old times, all these make Chen Cihong Former Residence the epitome of the Chaoshan Culture and a resort for tourism and academic research. Your tour to Chen Cihong Former Residence will incover the mystery of Chaoshan people and their culture.

Chen Cihong Former Residence, as the exquisite of tradition structure, is the best base for vedio photographing.