Nanqi Observation Residence

Nanqi Observation Residence

The Nanqi Observation Residence is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Guangdong Province.

The Nanqi Observation Residence is located in Nanqi Village, Nanqi Town, Jiaoling County, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province. It was initially built by Huang Qiongshi (courtesy name Zuojie), the 15th-generation ancestor of the Huang family, during the Qing Dynasty’s Kangxi era, and completed in the Yongzheng era—taking over 30 years, which is why it is also locally known as the “Late Completion Hall.” In 2002, descendants of the Huang family raised funds to renovate it. The building faces southwest and is oriented towards the northeast. It comprises a pond, an outer gate, a screen wall, a grain drying courtyard, the main hall, a flower terrace, an encircling dragon structure, side rooms, and more. The layout follows a pattern of three halls, five side wings, and an encircling dragon both front and back. It has one row of five bays, a total width of 79.6 meters, and a depth of 89.5 meters, containing 173 rooms in total. The residence covers an area of approximately 7,124 square meters, with a built-up area of about 4,792 square meters. The roof is hung with gray tiles, and the walls are made of rammed earth. The front façade features a concave shape with a doorframe of large bluestone slabs. The lower hall has a square stone base that supports a wooden screen. Between the lower and middle halls, there are symmetrical side rooms on both sides, supported by square stone bases and wooden pillars, featuring a post-and-lintel wooden frame, with a spacious central courtyard. The middle hall is an open space, one step higher than the lower hall, also with a post-and-lintel wooden frame. Multiple round stone-based wooden pillars support a screen; the corridor in front of the middle hall has a coffered ceiling under the eaves. The corridors on both sides between the middle and lower halls are symmetrical, with wooden frames and a slightly smaller central courtyard. The upper hall has a screen supported by stone-based wooden pillars and wooden panels, where ancestral tablets of the Huang family are enshrined. The flower terrace is high and steep, paved with uneven pebbles. The rear encircling dragon has two levels and is shaped like a crescent, surrounding the main hall and side rooms. Each side room inside the side wings has its own private hall and independent entrance. Two rows of front encircling dragons form a crescent around the pond and serve as utility rooms for raising poultry. The outer gate has a flush gable roof, a gable with a “人” character design, a bluestone threshold, and a wooden doorframe, with the inscription “Observation Residence” above, and couplets on both sides reading “A Gate of the Five Classics; A Home of Vast Virtue.” It is supported by round stone bases and wooden pillars, with a mixed post-and-lintel and post-and-beam frame. Huang Yanzhen, a Kuomintang general who fought in the War of Resistance against Japan, was a descendant of this residence. This building is large in scale and unique in structure. It is the only residence in Jiaoling County featuring both front and rear encircling dragons, making it of significant value for studying the architectural culture and local human history of such residences in the county. In October 2012, it was designated as a provincial-level cultural heritage site by the People’s Government of Guangdong Province.

Nanqi Village: Located in the central part of Nanqi Town, Jiaoling County, Meizhou City, Nanqi Village governs 23 villager groups, with 451 registered households and a population of 1,664. The village covers a total area of 11.34 square kilometers, including 829.14 mu of arable land. The annual average temperature is 21.7°C, and the annual rainfall is about 1,304 mm, characterized by a subtropical maritime monsoon climate. Major cash crops include medicinal herbs and tobacco leaves. The village’s distinctive economic income comes from bamboo, timber, flue-cured tobacco, and valuable trees. The total rural economic income of the village in the previous year was 7.42 million yuan. Leveraging its mountainous advantages, the village has developed... More details about Nanqi Village++

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of Guangdong Provincial Cultural Heritage Sites