Zhang Lande’s Former Residence

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　　After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, in the second year of the Republic of China, Xiao De Zhang brought substantial wealth along with his family and servants to the British Concession in Tianjin, where he purchased land and built a house at No. 55 Chongqing Road. Later, he gave the building to Prince Qing Zai Zhen and constructed another garden residence at the corner of Hubei Road and Zhengzhou Road. This property covered an area of 8.75 mu and was built in a Sino-Western castle-style architecture. The entire building consisted of a front building and a rear building, connected by an enclosed skybridge. The floors inside were made of imported Filipino hardwood and softwood inlays, featuring extremely exquisite patterns. The interiors were furnished with a variety of luxurious Chinese and Western-style furniture. The large garden on the premises included features such as a lotus pond, rockeries, and pavilions. In his later years, Xiao De Zhang’s family fortunes gradually declined. In 1951, he moved into this standalone small building and passed away here in 1957. This garden residence had entrances facing both Zhengzhou Road and Hubei Road, with the main entrance located on Zhengzhou Road. After the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, the entire structure was rebuilt, and the original appearance was lost. The preserved site is now at No. 4, Jinlin Village, Munan Road, Heping District.

　　Zhang Lande (1876–1957)　　 Zhang Lande (1876–1957), originally named Zhang Xiangzhai, with the courtesy name Yunting, was from Nanlv Guantun, Jinghai County, Tianjin. He was the last eunuch supervisor of the Qing Dynasty. Born in the second year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1876), he came from a poor background. In the fourteenth year of Guangxu (1888), after being mocked by a wealthy man, he boldly castrated himself. In the seventeenth year of Guangxu (1891), he entered the Qing imperial palace’s “Tea House” as a eunuch, taking “Haha Li,” another eunuch, as his master. Among the palace eunuchs, he was of the Lan generation, ranked as Zhang Lande, and was given the name “Hengtai” by Empress Dowager Cixi, with the palace title Xiao De Zhang. Unable to endure the hardships in the palace, he once pretended to be insane. In the eighteenth year of Guangxu (1892), he was assigned to...   More+