Cao Kun's Former Residence

　　The former residence of Cao Kun is situated at No. 2 Nanhai Road, Heping District. Constructed in 1923, it is widely referred to as Cao Mansion — a Western-style building newly built by Cao Kun for his fourth wife, Liu Fengwei, after he stepped down from power. It is a two-story brick building with a basement, comprising a total of 42 rooms including both floors and ground-level structures, covering a construction area of 1,153 square meters. The front eaves of the main building feature four reinforced concrete pillars adorned with carvings. The exterior is clad with yellow ceramic tiles, while the interior is exquisitely decorated with carvings of floral and animal motifs. The entire building is magnificent and remains well-preserved to this day. Currently, the residence is used as a kindergarten by the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Culture.

　　Cao Kun 　　Cao Kun, courtesy name Zhongshan, was a native of Tianjin in Zhili (now part of Hebei Province). He was a leader of the Zhili Clique during the Beiyang Era, the fifth President of the Republic of China (in October 1923, he ascended to the presidency through bribery and was thus nicknamed the "Bribery President"), and was posthumously awarded the rank of General of the Army (First Class) by the National Revolutionary Army (bestowed by the Military Committee of the Nationalist Government on June 14, 1938). Cao Kun attended a private school for several years in his childhood. At age 16, he peddled cloth in rural areas but eventually went out of business due to indulgence in pleasure and mismanagement. In 1881, when Yuan Shikai was recruiting soldiers at Xiaozhan, Cao enlisted. Soon after, he was selected to study at the Tianjin Military Academy. He graduated in 1890 (the 16th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty)... More+