Wangshan Tuku

Wangshan Tuku

Wangshan Tuku is a national AAA-level tourist attraction and a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangxi Province.

Located on Wangshangang in Datangping Township, Xinjian County, Jiangxi Province, 45 kilometers from the provincial capital Nanchang, Wangshan Tuku is an aristocratic official residence built in the early years of the Daoguang reign during the Qing Dynasty. The complex combines elements of Jiangnan garden architecture, Huizhou-style construction, and Qing imperial palace architecture. Its grand scale and majestic presence are rare not only in the Jiangnan region but across the entire country, earning it the folk title "Little Imperial Court of Jiangnan." National hero Lin Zexu once wrote and gifted a couplet here: “The spirit of lakes and mountains returns to the literary garden; the writings of brothers are selected for the tower.”

Wangshan Tuku is the residence built by the family of the "Three Grand Red-Topped Officials"—Cheng Yucui, Cheng Huancai, and Cheng Maochai. "Wangshan" is the name of the locality, originally called Dawangshan, while "Tuku" is a homophone for "upper house," referring to the earthen and wooden structure.

Construction of Wangshan Tuku began in the early Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty and took half a century to complete, finishing during the Tongzhi reign. The entire complex stretches 337 meters from east to west and 180 meters from north to south, covering an area of 108 mu, with 25 large blue-brick houses built in a post-and-lintel timber frame structure. The exterior walls of these houses form a continuous surface, featuring characteristics of the Hakka enclosed houses in southern Jiangxi.

With grey bricks and tiles, fire-preventing gables, and a courtyard design where rainwater converges at the center, the wall tops are stacked with dark tiles, and the eaves have spout drip tiles. The walls follow a pattern of one post and one sleeper, filled internally with earthen cores, while the waist walls use solid bricks, the base layers are red stone, and yet they also display features of Huizhou-style architecture. The exterior walls are not plastered, but the lower parts of the wall tops are outlined with earth-colored decorative lines—a local architectural technique distinct from Huizhou style. Buildings such as the Rice Fragrance Hall and Wanglu Tower were constructed in the style of Suzhou gardens. The grand scale and imposing presence of Wangshan Tuku are rare in the Jiangnan region and across the whole country.

The buildings of the complex face south and are arranged around a central ancestral hall as the axis, with four deep residential blocks on each side. Each block has between four to seven courtyards, totaling 1,446 rooms and 572 courtyards. The interior remains warm in winter and cool in summer. The layout includes crisscrossing internal lanes that offer shade on sunny days and keep feet dry on rainy ones. Among them, the "Eight-Foot Lane" is a major east-west thoroughfare within the Tuku complex. Between each residential block, there are separating lanes between the main rooms and kitchens, with doors not facing each other, designed to prevent the spread of fires. Beneath these separating lanes are many buried earthen jars that produce an echo effect, highlighting the solemnity of the Tuku complex. In April 2004, Wangshan Tuku was designated as a municipal cultural relic protection unit with the approval of the Nanchang Municipal People’s Government.

Address: Wangshan Tuku Scenic Area, Xinjian County, Nanchang

Type: Historical Architecture

Recommended Visiting Time: 1–2 hours

Ticket: 16 RMB

Phone: 0791-3081983

Opening Hours: 9:00–17:00

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relic Protection Units