Ding Family’s Mansion is referred to the residence of the rich Ding Family. Ding Family was once the richest family in Shandong Province during the Qing Dynasty, making a living on the pawnshops. They are called as “Ding Millionaire” by local people. The mansion was built during the Emperor Yongzheng and Daoguang periods of Qing Dynasty with a history of more than 200 years. Now, it is listed as the National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.
Introduction of the mansion
Ding Family’s Mansion is located on Huangcheng West Street, Longkou City in Yantai. Now the remaining buildings cover an area of 3.1 hectares with a construction area of 8,042 square meters. It is currently a large-scale, world-famous and well-preserved courtyard style building complex in China. It embodies the folk customs of Shandong Province and shows the ingenuity of the laboring people in ancient China. Ding Family’s Mansion was redesigned as a museum by the Longkou Government and opened to the public since 1985.
The buildings are designed orderly on the central axis. The entire building complex is divided into several big courtyards, each of which is composed of several small courtyards, simple but grandeur. There were once more than 2,700 houses at that time. Now, there are only 240 houses preserved, which still remain the distinctive layout and features of the Qing Dynasty.
Facing to the east, the mansion now is composed of Aifu Hall, Lvsu Hall, Baosu Hall, Chongjian Hall and the private Qing-style garden - Shufang Garden. The mansion is divided into east part and west part by an ancient street.
The houses have the wooden frame structures while the roofs are covered with fish-like blue tiles. The main buildings are decorated with five ridges with six beasts on each of it with exquisite materials by the excellent skills. The beams of doors and windows are painted in various gold patterns. The stone carvings, brick carvings and wood carvings on the corridor and courtyard are very exquisite and delicate, which adds the brilliant charms of the residential buildings. The mansion can be regarded as the foretype of the residential architectures.
The mansion contains more than 14,000 cultural relics. There are 20 exhibition rooms in different houses, including the restored exhibition, Ding Family’s memorial hall, living room, bedroom, study room, old-style private school, pawnshop, accounting house, folk customs room and etc.