The Nanyi Building Complex

The Nanyi Building Complex

The Nanyi Building Complex is located at No. 8 Jia Geng Road, Jimei. It includes Nanyi 13, Nanyi 14, Nanyi 15, and Nanyi 16, which were completed successively between 1954 and 1959.

In the early years after liberation, Mr. Tan Kah Kee founded the Jimei Overseas Chinese Preliminary School to address the challenges faced by a large number of overseas Chinese students returning to China for education. In 1999, the school was renamed the College of Chinese Language and Culture of Huaqiao University and is now a specialized institution in China for training overseas Chinese in learning the Chinese language.

The Nanyi Building Complex consists of four buildings, all facing south and built along the terrain, arranged mostly in a linear formation. Most of the structures have four floors, with some sections having five. They feature a mixed structure of brick, stone, and wood. The exterior walls are constructed with granite strips, accented with red exposed brick decorations. The layout includes arched front porches and twin corner towers, with roofs designed in Western-style double-pitched gables covered with red machine-made flat tiles. The pediments are adorned with motifs commonly used after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, such as gears, wheat ears, and five-pointed stars. Window surrounds are finely decorated, and corner pillars feature “brick-and-stone” inlay designs. The floor areas of Nanyi 13 to Nanyi 16 are 3,980, 2,760, 2,125, and 6,093 square meters respectively.