A Century-Old Lingnan Style Remains Evergreen, Yet Hidden in Small Alleys and Little Known

Zheng Guanying was born in Guangdong in 1842, moved to Macau as a child, later went to Shanghai for business, accumulating rich connections and skilled business experience. At the age of 42, he retired to Macau, taking pleasure in the natural landscape, and there completed his masterpiece that influenced later generations.

Zheng Guanying lived in Macau for generations. Although he mainly operated in Shanghai, he regarded Macau as a harbor for rest. Whenever he encountered setbacks in his career, he would always return to the Zheng Family Mansion in Macau to seek inner peace.

Macau's unique advantages provided Zheng Guanying such a place of return, and this ancestral home of Zheng Guanying in Macau is particularly significant. In the early 21st century, as part of the Historic Centre of Macau, it was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage site.

The Zheng Family Mansion is located at Rua do Pagode do Patane and Travessa do Pagode do Patane in Macau. Its construction dates back to 1869, more than 150 years ago. The main building faces the inner harbor, covers an area of 4,000 square meters, and is a Lingnan-style courtyard mansion composed of multiple buildings of different styles and open spaces. It is one of the representative buildings in the Historic Centre of Macau.

As one of the oldest large-scale traditional Chinese residential buildings in Macau, the Zheng Family Mansion features a quadrangle-style Lingnan folk house, while also incorporating many Western architectural elements such as Western-style column capitals, door lintels, window lintels, ceilings, etc. Especially the circular corridor doors, couplets, plaster ornaments, and floral decorations all have strong Chinese architectural characteristics.

In fact, in the hearts of Macau people, this mansion is as famous as landmarks such as the Ruins of St. Paul's, A-Ma Temple, Na Tcha Temple, and St. Dominic's Church. It carries precious cultural heritage and embodies incomparable spiritual value.

After years of weathering and vicissitudes, the Zheng Family Mansion gradually fell into disrepair. In 2001, the Macau SAR government carried out an 8-year renovation project on it, restoring the old as old, making this century-old house shine again. Now it is open to the public for free as the Zheng Guanying Memorial Museum.