Renwei

Renwei

Renwei is a cultural heritage site protected by Foshan City.

Renwei is located on Liaoyuan Road in Foshan’s urban area. It is a large estate built during the Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns of the Qing Dynasty by the wealthy Ren brothers, who were prominent silk merchants in Foshan. The estate was originally enclosed by walls, hence the name "Wei" (meaning “enclosure”). It originally comprised Ren Wei Mansion in Le’an Li and Ren Ying Mansion in Ren Ying Fang, including ancestral halls, residences, gardens, and ponds, covering an area of several thousand square meters. The buildings in Le’an Li are relatively well-preserved today. The ancestral hall features a three-bay width, a three-courtyard layout, and a mixed post-and-lintel and through-tenon beam structure, though only the front gate and the second courtyard remain. The original Ren Wei Mansion consisted of 25 individual buildings of the same size and style, arranged in five rows and columns, with flush-gable roofs and purlin-supported structures—today, only 10 remain. The Ren Ying Mansion currently has nine surviving buildings, arranged in three rows and columns, all featuring wok-handle-shaped gable walls and a three-bay, two-corridor floor plan. The garden and pond no longer exist.

In 1989, the Foshan Municipal People's Government designated it as a cultural heritage protection unit.