Former Residence of Feng Zicai
Feng Zicai's former residence, also named Gong Bao Di, is located in the north of Qinzhou, and is the place where Feng Zicai lives after his retirement. It covers an area of over 150,000 square meters, and the main buildings covers an area of 2,020 square meters, and it is so big that it has three small hills in the residence. It has a brick wall, and consists of three main buildings and other small buildings. In the entrance door, there are two stone lions which are a feature of buildings in China, and it is believed that lion can guard houses from evil spirits. In the residence, except these main buildings, you can see other buildings like temple, tower, fish pond, water well, and horse stable. The residence has a good layout and environment, and planted with lots of plants.
The residence is divided into several sightseeing scenes, like main buildings, the exhibition hall, bronze statute zone, wushu practising room, and those places have great historic, cultural and aesthetic value.
The residence is built in 1875, and in a brick and wood construction and in a southern building style in the Qing Dynasty( 1644 AD- 1912 AD). The buildings are not in a resplendent style, but in a simple and plain style. The building materials are well selected, and the wood used in beams, posts, doors, windows and boards are precious erythrophloeum ferdii. The buildings are decorated with exquisite carvings and murals. The main three buildings have a total length of 40.5 meters and a width of 45 meters, and they are arranged in a horizontal line, and each building is divided into three parts, and the three buildings have 27 rooms in total. They are mainly in a gray and white color and looks plain. All those buildings are well preserved. In the residence, you may see design and layout of the residence, and see the decoration of those buildings, and you will know something about Chinese ancient southern building style.
Inside the residence, there is an exhibition hall which uses materials like pictures to tell the life story of Feng Zicai: He had a poor and miserable childhood, but grew up as an officer of high level in Guangxi when he was in his middle age, and he commanded army to suppress Taiping Rebellion. When France invaded Guangxi in the end of 19th century, he was about 70 years old, and led Chinese army to fight against the French army, and played an important role in winning the Zhennanguang battle. Due to his heroic story in fighting against foreign invaders, this residence become an base for education in patriotism.
In the sculpture garden, it has dozens of statues of many great people, including Feng Zicai, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Confucius. Most of those statues are copies of Cao Chong'en's representative works, who is a sculpture master and a professor in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and he donated those statues to this residence in 2006.
Former Residence of Feng Zicai is located in Gongbao street, Qinnan district, and close to Qinzhou Gulf Square, and you may take No.38 public bus to here. This tour spot opens from 8:30 to 18:30, and the open time may be different according to regulation. And as a base for patriotism education, it takes no admission fee. A tour in this residence may cost about two hours, but such a short tour will give a learning about Chinese history and great people in China. When having a tour in a historic site like this one, you should make no destruction its buildings and materials.
