Diji Hall

Diji Hall

Diji Hall, also known as the Official Hall, was built during the Jiachen year of the Kangxi reign in the Qing Dynasty. The entire residence consists of three courtyards and a four-story, five-bay structure, exuding dignity and classic simplicity. It was the ancestral home of three generations—Bingpei, Yinghai, and Guansan—of the Mingjing Hu family. Hu Guansan once hosted Cao Zhenyong, a senior statesman and father-in-law to a prime minister who served three dynasties, here, hence the name “Official Hall.”

Xidi Village: Located at the southern foot of the Huangshan Mountain Range in Yixian County, Anhui Province, Xidi Village sits in Dongyuan Township, approximately 8 kilometers east of the county seat. The road from Yicheng to Tankou passes by the northwest side of the village.

The ancient dwellings of Xidi are largely well-preserved, featuring an architectural style that stands out uniquely within the Hui-style tradition. The craftsmanship is exquisite, especially noted for its refined "three carvings" (stone carving, wood carving, and brick carving), with stone carving being particularly outstanding. These structures serve not only as valuable physical artifacts for studying Qing Dynasty residential architecture but also as important resources for researching the socio-economic patterns of the Huizhou merchants, as well as the history of architecture and art from the Ming and Qing dynasties onward. Xidi Village is hailed as the "Museum of Ming and Qing Residential Architecture," the "Treasury of Eastern Culture," and the "Best-Preserved… Xidi Village detailed information++