No. 7 Qianyongkang Hutong Courtyard

No. 7 Qianyongkang Hutong Courtyard

No. 7 Qianyongkang Hutong Courtyard is a municipal-level cultural heritage site in Beijing.

No. 7 Qianyongkang Hutong Courtyard is located at No. 7 Qianyongkang Hutong, Dongcheng District, and is listed as part of the seventh batch of municipal-level cultural heritage protection units in Beijing.

The property has one main gate, with three wing rooms on each side, and an octagonal screen wall outside the gate. Inside the gate, there are screen doors to the north, west, and east; the west and east screen doors lead to corridors on both sides. Moon gates in both the east and west courtyards provide access to the east courtyard (No. 5), the west courtyard (No. 9), and through a floral-pendant gate to the second courtyard. The main building has three rooms, flanked by one ear room on each side, three side rooms on both the east and west, and corridors connecting to the rear rooms. This residence was built by Li Lianying, a eunuch in the late Qing Dynasty. After 1949, it was successively inhabited by Xu Haidong and Chen Yi. The courtyard is well-organized with a spacious layout, featuring a screen wall in front of the gate, a garden in the yard, as well as pavilions, terraces, and artificial hills. Courtyard No. 7 is well-preserved. From the northwest corridor of the main room in Courtyard No. 7, you can access the west courtyard, which has a five-room open hall with a front porch and rear extension, a water pool, rockery, and pavilion in the south, and corridors in the west that connect to Courtyard No. 9. Ten murals depicting scenes from "Dream of the Red Chamber" along the corridors are rare among Beijing’s traditional courtyard homes.

Source: Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of Municipal-Level Cultural Heritage Protection Units in Beijing