Mandarin's House

The Mandarin's House was built from the 1860s by the family of Zheng Guanying, a merchant and reformist writer whose book on political and economic reform was read by senior Qing officials, and it runs to some four thousand square metres of linked courtyards, halls and passages. Chinese in plan, it takes in western details: plaster mouldings, coloured glass, arched windows. It fell into decay as a tenement before an eight-year restoration.

History

Zheng Wenrui, father of the late-Qing reformer and theorist Zheng Guanying, built the house in 1869, and Zheng Guanying and his brothers gradually enlarged it into a complex of some 4,000 square metres, largely Cantonese in style with western elements, where Zheng Guanying finished his best-known work, Words of Warning in Times of Prosperity. In the 1990s the family moved out and the house was let, at one point to more than 300 tenants in poor conditions, and it was badly damaged by fire. The government took over the complex in 2001, its repair took eight years, and in 2005 it became part of the Historic Centre of Macau World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Mandarin's House).

What's there

• The linked courtyards - some four thousand square metres of halls and passages.
• The hybrid detail - western mouldings, coloured glass and arches on a Chinese plan.
• The Zheng connection - the family of the reformist writer who built it.
• The restoration - the eight-year programme after decades as a tenement.

When to go

October to December is dry and cool. The house keeps daytime hours and closes one day a week. An hour or two covers it.

What to expect

It closes one day a week and sections shut for maintenance. Interpretation is limited despite the scale. The entrance is on a small lane and easy to miss.

Nearby

Lilau Square is beside it, and the Moorish Barracks are south.

Key facts