Taoyuan Wang Residence

Taoyuan Wang Residence

The Wang Residence is located at No. 41 Renmin Street, Tongluo Community, Taoyuan Town, Wujiang District, Suzhou City, and is currently a Suzhou Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Built in the early years of the Republic of China, the Wang Residence consists of six courtyards. The first courtyard faces the water and features a “double-drop” riverside wharf (there is also a wharf along the river on the east side of the residence). This section was originally a building with multiple floors but was later converted into a single-story house. The second courtyard is separated from the first by a street. Courtyards two through five are all multi-story buildings, while the sixth is a single-story structure. Behind the second, third, and fourth courtyards, there are brick-carved gate towers and stone-paved courtyards.

While fully embodying the charm of the “small bridge, flowing water, and people’s homes” landscape and the architectural style of Jiangnan residential buildings in the early Republic of China, the Wang Residence also holds significant cultural value as the hometown of Academician Wang Jidian of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

On October 11, 1935, Wang Jidian was born in the Wang Residence. His father was an intellectual who graduated from the Department of Economics at Soochow University in 1932 and worked at the Hangzhou Liangzhe Salt Administration Bureau. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, three-year-old Wang Jidian and his family relocated inland, traveling via Hong Kong and Haiphong, Vietnam, before arriving in Kunming, Yunnan. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, the family returned to Hangzhou with his father’s workplace and then went back to their hometown, Tongluo. In the first year of junior high, Wang Jidian attended a private school in Hangzhou but fell ill with typhoid fever after less than three months. At that time, his mother was living in Tongluo with his two younger brothers. After Wang Jidian recovered, he was sent to Zhenze Yuying Middle School, which was relatively close to Tongluo.

Source: Wujiang District Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Press and Publication

Wang Jidian, geothermal and hydrogeological scientist, was born on October 11, 1935, in Wujiang, Jiangsu Province. He graduated from the Department of Hydrology and Engineering Geology at the Beijing Institute of Geology in 1956. In July 1962, he earned a Soviet candidate degree (equivalent to a Ph.D.) in geological mineralogy from the Moscow Geological Exploration Institute. He was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995 and as an academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 2001. He is a researcher at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 1989 to 2001, he served as a member of the Executive Board of the International Geothermal Association (IGA).

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Taoyuan Town: Located at the border between two provinces, Taoyuan Town sits at the southernmost tip of Wujiang City, covering a total administrative area of 61.41 square kilometers. It governs 2 neighborhood committees and 29 administrative villages, with a total population of 46,800. Amidst the tide of reform and opening up, Taoyuan Town has achieved sustained, rapid, and healthy economic development. It has been honored as one of China’s Top 100 Towns for Afforestation and Greening, a Jiangsu Provincial Sanitary Town, a Jiangsu Provincial New-Type Small Town, and a Jiangsu Provincial Advanced Cultural Town, among other titles. Taoyuan Middle School and Qingyun Middle School, located in the southern and northern communities respectively, both rank among the top schools in the city in terms of educational quality. ... More details about Taoyuan Town++