Cao Rulin’s Former Residence

　　The former residence of Cao Rulin is located at No. 108 Shanxi Road, Heping District. Covering an area of two mu, it is a three-story red-brick small Western-style house with a brick-and-wood structure, designed by architect Shen Liyuan, who was a student in Italy. It has a basement and features many Romanesque carvings and sculptures. The corridors and various ceilings inside the building are adorned with plaster decorations and wainscoting, and the doors and windows are finely carved with woodwork. Upon entering the main building, to the left of the corridor there is a dressing table with a glass-brick mirror in the center and hangers on both sides. At the front of the corridor stands a large grandfather clock and a bronze figure over a foot tall wearing a long coat and holding a lantern. The first floor includes a dining room, a sitting room, and a small dance hall. The second and third floors contain private spaces such as bedrooms and studies. The residence has both a front and a rear courtyard. The front courtyard houses a guard room, a Buddhist shrine, a garage, a kitchen, and other facilities, all single-story buildings. After being dismissed from his post in 1919, Cao Rulin lived here. The residence is now used as residential housing and is listed as an immovable cultural relic in Tianjin that has not yet been officially designated as a protected heritage site.

　　Cao Rulin (1877~1966)　　Cao Rulin (1877–1966) was originally from Zhejiang. He was a high-ranking official in the early years of the Republic of China and the leader of the New Communications Clique. Born in 1877 in Shanghai, he studied in a private school in his childhood before attending the Hanyang Railway School. In his early years, he studied law and politics at Waseda University in Japan. During the May Fourth Movement, his residence was tragically burned down. During the Anti-Japanese War, Cao Rulin refused to cooperate with the Japanese and declined the position of Prime Minister in the puppet government. Later, although he was nominally given honorary titles such as Supreme Advisor to the Provisional Government of North China and Consultant to the North China Political Council, he did not actively assist the Japanese and thus managed to preserve his integrity in his later years. In 1900, he went to Japan to study and supported constitutional monarchy, opposing Sun Yat-sen's... Details+