Yueyang Yuehan Railway British Experts' Building

Yueyang Yuehan Railway British Experts' Building

Yueyang Yuehan Railway British Experts' Building is a cultural relic protection unit of Hunan Province.

Yueyang Yuehan Railway British Experts' Building (commonly known as "Building No. 5" or "the Foreign-style House"), located in the Sanjiaoping Timber Yard at the southernmost tip of western Yueyang City, within the Lüxianting Neighborhood Committee of Lüxianting Subdistrict, Yueyanglou District, Yueyang City, Hunan Province. Originally under the jurisdiction of Yueyang Timber Company, it now falls within the area of Huatai Timber Industry Company of Taigreen Paper Group. This building is a two-story arcade-style British-style high-end residential structure specially constructed for British railway engineers during the construction of the Yuehan Railway in the late Qing Dynasty. In 1914, when Zhan Tianyou served as the chief commander for the construction of the Wuchang–Changsha section of the railway, work on the roadbed commenced progressively from Wuchang to Changsha. At the same time, five (or possibly more) two-story foreign-style houses were built on the slopes along the Yuehan Railway in the Yueyang section to serve as workplaces and residences for British experts. Only this one remains today. The "Experts' Building" is of brick-and-wood structure, roughly rectangular in floor plan, measuring 18 meters from north to south and 19.8 meters from east to west, covering a ground area of 293 square meters, with a total height of 10.9 meters, oriented 40° northwest. The building is surrounded by a surrounding corridor, with the ground floor raised to form an approximately 0.8-meter-high elevated level. The columns of the first-floor corridor feature arches, and both the upper and lower floors are floored with wooden planks. The second-floor columns are all double Roman columns, while the exterior walls are coated with rough-surfaced cement concrete. The roof is a single-eave hip roof, currently covered with red clay flat tiles. Shortly after the completion of the Yueyang Yuehan Railway British Experts' Building, seven bungalows were built to its northeast to provide living and working quarters for other personnel involved in the construction of the Yuehan Railway. These were later handed over to the guard unit of the Nanjin Port Railway Bridge and used as barracks. Six of these bungalows still remain, with rectangular floor plans and double-sloped roofs. Most bricks in the central parts of their walls have grooves, some of which contain inscriptions such as "Liren," "Ligong," "Lihé," and "Erhegong." The Experts' Building is currently used as a residence and is relatively well preserved. It is a typical representative of late Qing–era British-style architecture in northeastern Hunan, as well as physical evidence of the economic aggression against China by imperialist powers. It also serves as material witness to how Western powers gradually reduced China to a semi-colonial state and exposes the true nature of imperialist aggression.

Further Reading:

· Ninth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Hunan Province