Shi Family Courtyard

The Shi Family Courtyard (石家大院), also called Zunmei Hall, stands at 47 Guyi Street in Yangliuqing and belonged to Shi Yuanshi, the fourth son of Shi Wancheng, one of the Tianjin Eight Great Families. Construction began in 1875 and finished in 1877, and further additions and alterations over nearly fifty years produced a residence of 278 rooms in fifteen successive compounds. It is now a national key protected cultural relic site, a Tianjin protected site and a protected historic building, and since 1992 it has opened as the Yangliuqing Museum of Tianjin. Its brick, wood and stone carving is the finest part of the building, and along with the Drum Tower, the Li Chun shrine and the Cantonese Guild Hall it is counted among the leading examples of Chinese-style architecture in the city.