The Nanxun Building Complex

The Nanxun Building Complex

The Nanxun Building Complex is located at No. 19 and No. 27 Aoyuan Road, Jimei, and includes the Yanping Building, Nanxun Building, Liming Building, and Daonan Building, with the main structures being the Nanxun Building and Daonan Building.

Yanping Building: Built in September 1922 as the teaching building for Jimei Primary School. It was bombed and collapsed by Japanese aircraft during the War of Resistance, and was restored to its original design in 1953. It now serves as a teaching building for Jimei Middle School.

The building faces south with a north orientation, featuring a four-story central section and three-story wings, covering a construction area of 2,976 square meters. It has a brick, stone, and wood structure, with some parts using reinforced concrete. The layout is characterized by twin corner towers and a front porch. The exterior walls are built on a stone base, with red solid brick load-bearing walls and granite blocks used decoratively. Except for the mid-section of the second and third floors’ front porches, which have cast-in-place reinforced concrete floors, the rest of the floors are wooden. The roof features a single-eave hip-and-gable roof in the center, while the wings and corner towers have double-curved ridge flush gable roofs. The roofing is covered with green glazed tiles. Corner pillars are decorated with “brick-in-stone” patterns. Arches, railings, and window surrounds feature Western-style ornamentation. In 2003, it was reinforced with a concrete structure, though the exterior retained its original red solid bricks and granite stonework.

Nanxun Building: Built in 1956 as the teaching building for Jimei Finance and Economics School, it now serves as a teaching building for Jimei Middle School.

The building faces south with a north orientation, featuring a 16-story main tower and 5-story wings (partially 6 stories), constructed with granite and concrete. Its overall style resembles a Western tower, akin to 19th-century Baroque architecture in Western Europe. The layout is in a “个” shape, with front porches on both wings. The main building is 19.24 meters wide and 54 meters tall, with a total floor area of 8,105 square meters, making it the tallest structure in Jimei School Village. It has a granite strip foundation, with load-bearing walls made of granite stones and red solid bricks used decoratively. The main tower features a dome clock tower, while the east and west corner towers have double-eave spire pavilions. The wings have flush gable roofs. The roof is covered mainly with green glazed tiles, with a small number of red machine-made flat tiles. Column capitals and eaves are finely decorated. It underwent reinforcement and maintenance between 2003 and 2004.

Liming Building: Built in 1958 as the teaching building for Jimei Finance and Economics School, it now serves as a teaching building for Jimei Middle School.

The building faces south with a north orientation and was constructed along the terrain, featuring a six-story central section and four to five-story other parts. It has a mixed brick, stone, and wood structure, with a total construction area of 2,420 square meters. The layout follows a twin corner tower and front porch design, with the third floor featuring an arched porch. The foundation below the sill is built with granite strip stones. The main building’s load-bearing walls are made of red solid bricks, with granite stones used decoratively. The corner towers’ load-bearing walls are made of granite strip stones, with red solid bricks used decoratively. The floors vary between bamboo-reinforced concrete slabs and reinforced concrete slabs depending on load-bearing needs. The central roof is a single-eave flush gable roof covered with green glazed tiles, adorned with large bracket sets under the eaves. The wings and corner towers have double-sloped roofs covered with red machine-made flat tiles. It was reinforced in 2003 and converted to a reinforced concrete structure.

Daonan Building: A representative structure personally planned and designed by Tan Kah Kee before his death, it was completed in 1964 as the teaching building for Jimei Finance and Economics School and now serves as a teaching building for Jimei Middle School.

The building faces south with a north orientation and consists of nine connected structures arranged in a row, with a total width of 176 meters, a depth of 18 meters, and a total construction area of 15,566 square meters, using a mixed brick, stone, and wood structure. The central main building has seven stories, while the wings consist of 5-story and 6-story sections arranged alternately in four groups, including four 5-story buildings with front outer porches. All nine buildings are built on granite strip foundations, with load-bearing walls made of a mix of block stones and red bricks. Floors vary between bamboo-reinforced concrete slabs and cast-in-place reinforced concrete slabs based on load requirements. The roof framework is wooden, with the central main building featuring a swallowtail ridge double-eave flush gable roof, and the wings having swallowtail ridge single-eave flush gable roofs. The nine traditional Chinese-style large roofs are paved with alternating red and green tiles, where five are covered with green glazed tiles and feature large bracket sets under the eaves, while the other four are covered with red machine-made flat tiles. Due to termite damage, the roof framework was replaced with reinforced concrete in 1991, and the building underwent reinforcement maintenance in 2003. It is considered a masterpiece among Tan Kah Kee-style buildings.