Aogbu Weilong House in Aotou

Aogbu Weilong House in Aotou

Aogbu Weilong House in Aotou is located in Gangpu Village, Aotou, Fuhe Town. Built in the 22nd year of the Kangxi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1683), it has a total width of 38.8 meters, a depth of 36.2 meters, and covers an area of 1,454.56 square meters.

The Weilong structure has a semi-circular floor plan and is built on a platform that is 0.40–0.80 meters high. The surrounding exterior walls feature 1.5-meter-high timber-clad walls, atop which are approximately 30-meter-high earthen brick walls. The central part of the entire Weilong house is a two-courtyard-deep ancestral hall, measuring 17.60 meters in width and 18.70 meters in depth. The main gate has three bays in width and three in depth, with side chambers that sequentially divide the space into the central bay, side bays, end bays, and corner bays. It has a flush-gable roof covered with tiles, a boat-shaped main ridge, and a gable-and-hip fireproof wall in a zigzag pattern, with two pillars under the eaves. On both sides of the courtyard are side halls, each divided into four small rooms. The outer side hall has a higher roof that seamlessly merges with the natural roof of the two front courtyards, giving it a butterfly-like appearance, with only the lower eave section forming a corridor. The second courtyard is similar in layout to the first, but the central bay is divided into front and rear sections: the front is used for ancestral worship, while the rear serves as a hall with side doors opening to the front and rear, and also to a rear door leading out to a crescent-shaped pebble-paved open space outside the ancestral hall. Surrounding the ancestral hall are over 23 fan-shaped wing rooms. The wing room complex reaches its highest point at the center of the rear, featuring a dragon boat-style ridge that extends to slightly lower ridges on either side. There are no ridge decorations on either side of the wing rooms until they loop around to the front of the ancestral hall, where they form a large flat surface, transitioning into gable-and-ear fireproof walls that stand prominently as side walls. Between the gable walls and the front courtyard of the ancestral hall, the roof extends across to connect them as one unit, with side doors below.

On the flat ground outside the Weilong house, there is a pair of flagpole stands on each side. In front of the flat ground was originally a crescent-shaped pond the same size as the Weilong house, a creative design. According to village records, the family was led by Chen Rulan from Jiaoling in Xingmei and migrated to this location, where they built houses and have lived here for over 320 years. This is a unique small Weilong house in Zengcheng.