Yang Tingbao’s Residence

Yang Tingbao’s Residence

Yang Tingbao’s Residence is a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangsu Province.

Yang Tingbao’s former residence is located at No. 104 Chengxian Street, Xuanwu District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province.

It was independently designed and built by Mr. Yang Tingbao in October 1946. The residence covers an area of approximately one thousand square meters, with lush trees throughout the courtyard, including pine, toon, and loquat trees. A small greenhouse and a cluster of tall bamboo stand along the northern courtyard wall. The iron double doors of the courtyard face west toward the street. In the southwest corner of the courtyard are two small rooms, originally used as a gatehouse, now vacant.

The main building of the residence faces south and is a Western-style three-bay two-story house, constructed with a brick-concrete structure, wooden windows and doors, internal staircase, red flat-tile roofing, and beige-gray plastered exterior walls. It has a construction area of 164 square meters. The first-floor hall displays a portrait of the late Mr. Yang Tingbao. The western room serves as a living room, and the eastern room as a study, both still arranged as they were during Mr. Yang’s lifetime. The second floor contains three bedrooms. Additionally, there is a separate kitchen and bathroom building located near the northeast corner of the perimeter wall. At the base of the western gable wall of the residence, there is an inscribed stone tablet that reads “Yang Tingbao’s Residence.” The entire compound is currently inhabited by Mrs. Chen Faqing, Mr. Yang’s 98-year-old wife, along with one of their daughters.

Yang Tingbao (1901–1982), courtesy name Renhui, was from Nanyang, Henan Province. Born into an intellectual family, he was exposed to the art of painting from a young age. After obtaining his master's degree in 1925, he went to Europe for further studies. He returned to China in 1927 and, together with Guan Songshe and Zhu Bin, co-founded the "Kwan, Chu and Yang Architects" firm in Tianjin, where Yang served as an architect. In 1940, he also took on a teaching role as a professor in the Architecture Department at Central University. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, he held various positions including Vice President of Nanjing Institute of Technology, Head of the Architecture Department, and Director of the Architecture Research Institute. Following the liberation, he participated in the design of Beijing Tiananmen Square and Beijing’s Ten Great Buildings. Notably, the Beijing Heping Hotel, which he presided over designing, received praise from Premier Zhou Enlai. In addition, he led the design of major projects such as the Huaihai Campaign Memorial Tower in Xuzhou, the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, the Nanjing Memorial Hall at the Rain Flower Terrace Martyrs' Cemetery, the bridgeheads of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, and the Wutai Mountain Gymnasium.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Jiangsu Province