Xiangyi Manor

Xiangyi Manor

The Hua Family’s Xiangyi Manor is located in Yaowanli, south of the town, and was built in the early years of the Republic of China. It consists of five bays in three courtyards, with an additional two-story building of two bays constructed beside the wharf in front of the manor. Covering a land area of 945 square meters and a built-up area of 612 square meters, it originally included over 500 mu of charitable farmland. The head of Xiangyi Manor, Hua Wenkui—originally named Wenkui, with the courtesy name Qiaoqiao and the alias Tingting—took the name Xiangyun after moving to Shanghai. Born on May 17, 1852 (the 2nd year of the Xianfeng reign), he passed away in 1925 (the 14th year of the Republic of China). He was the 25th-generation descendant of the Beiheting branch of the Sanxing sub-lineage of the Hua family, a student of the Imperial College, and an official cataloger in the Hanlin Academy. In his early years, he moved his family to Shanghai, where he started a tailoring business. He later ventured into silk fabrics, furs, and banking. Through years of hard work and frugality, his family fortune gradually grew. He then independently purchased land in Dangkou, built the manor, and named it "Xiangyi Manor." It was managed by his son, Hua Jinglian, with regulations modeled after both new and old charitable estates, jointly providing relief to impoverished clan members, supporting orphans and widows, and offering disaster relief.