4.2.1 Historic Personalities’ Residences in China
As China is 5,000 years old, there are countless historic personalities from ancient times to modern times.According to statistics, since the Yuan Dynasty, there are about 1,500 notable historical persons’ residences located in ancient capital city Beijing.Currently, there are 308 residences of this nature located in the ancient area of this city.[24]On the national level, there are numerous famous
Figure 4-16.Lu Xun Square(https://www.daowen.com)
Shaoxing is known as the ‘City of Historic Personality’.The poet Lu You, the writer Lu Xun (Fig.4-16), the educator Cai Yuanpei, Tao Xingzhi, the meteorologist Zhu Kezhen, the historian Fan Wenlan and former Prime Minister Zhou Enlai were all born in Shaoxing.Although the city is quite small, it is full of historic residences and monuments.The former residence of Lu Xun was located in the center of Shaoxing.Lu Xun was born here in 1881.He spent his childhood and youth in this place until he went to Nanjing to study in 1899.From 1910 to 1912, Lu Xun returned to his hometown to teach.This residence was originally built by his ancestors during the Jia Qing era of the Qing Dynasty.There are more than 80 rooms with a garden named Baicaoyuan, covers an area of about 4,000 square meters.Later, most rooms of this residence were changed through rebuilding, but Lu Xun’s room was preserved due to his high reputation throughout the country (Fig.4-17).After China’s liberation, the Government has several times allocated funds for its restoration.Most of the original furniture has been retrieved and displayed according to that time.At present, the former residence of Lu Xun is a national education base and a national key cultural heritage site.The former residence of Lu Xun and its related building groups with environment development have been developed as a relatively famous historical block and popular tourism destination.The protection plan expands to 51.57 hectares, including 28.9 hectares of core historic protection area.[25]
Figure 4-17.The Residence of Lu Xun in Shaoxing