I know it's been a while since my last blog post but there hasn't been a lot of stories to share. Teaching has been good, my students are great, and things are uneventful but good. However, I did take a trip this last week to Beijing. I've been to Beijing a number of times and each time I try to find new places to visit. This weekend I ended up going to Prince Gong's Mansion (Chinese: 恭王府; pinyin: Gōng Wáng Fǔ). This is a historic site in Beijing where a traditional style mansion still stands to this day. It has been transformed into a park and tourists are allowed to explore the grounds. It is one of Beijing's lesser popular locations and I didn't see the mass of humanity that is so keen to occupy some of the more famous locations. It was still quite a treat to see.
The mansion was constructed in 1777, during the Qing Dynasty, for Niohuru Heshen (Chinese: 鈕祜祿·和珅; pinyin: Niǔhùlù Héshēn), a prominent court official in the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. From a young age, Heshen earned the favor of the Qianlong Emperor and he rose swiftly through the ranks in the imperial administration to become one of the top and wealthiest officials in Qianlong's court. In 1799, Qianlong's successor, the Jiaqing Emperor, accused Heshen of corruption and had him executed and confiscated his property. The mansion was then given to Prince Qing, the 17th and youngest son of the Qianlong Emperor.
The mansion itself houses a number of impressive buildings, gardens, courtyards. There is even a man-made duck pond with an island pagoda in the middle. In the back of the mansion there is a separate house for the lady of the household. This special house was called the bat house. There are a couple of theories as to why the wife's special house was called the bat house. One theory suggests that it's because of the singular body with two wings coming off both side that makes it look like a bat shape. Another theory suggests that the it's because the Chinese word for bat (Chinese: 蝙蝠; pinyin: Biānfú) sounds like the Chinese word for "good fortune" (Chinese: 福 ; pinyin: Fú) and the owner wanted to bless his wife. What do you think? No one really knows the answer.
The whole mansion itself is quite beautiful and I'll let the pictures below do the talking:
Very interesting! What is the story with the dogs? It is a beautiful place. My thought is that the house was bat shaped. :)
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