A Local’s Stroll Through Nanjing: The Ganxi Residence

Walking time: April 2021

Getting there: Subway Line 1 to Sanshanjie Station

Address: Xinanli Historical Block

Route: Pingshi Street – Nima Lane – Xinanli – Ganxi Residence

After a haircut at a salon on Shengzhou Road, I had plenty of time left, so I thought I’d visit the nearby Ganxi Residence. Following the walking navigation, I went from Shengzhou Road into Pingshi Street, through Nima Lane, Lingzhuang Lane, and Nanbuting in the Xinanli Historical Block, and found the south gate of Ganxi Residence. Nowadays, this is the only gate open for entry and exit – probably due to pandemic control measures!

Who would have thought that this tucked-away courtyard house with a modest entrance in the alley is the largest commoner’s residence of the Qing Dynasty in China, with over 200 years of history – Ganxi Residence. After going through the standard pandemic check-in routine, I stepped into this long-heard-of mansion. Looking closely, the gate is not large but exquisitely crafted: whitewashed walls, black tiles, eaves sweeping upwards, and ivy cascading from the roof tiles like a waterfall. The upturned gateway and simple brick carvings, inlaid on the white-washed, tile-topped compound wall, feature the inscribed characters “Tong Yin” (Parasol Shade). The shape of the door is also distinctive, and the two stone lions in front, with their quirky and cute expressions, are utterly endearing. A stone tablet and two red lanterns hanging under the eaves, set against the white wall, catch the eye vividly. Then, reading the identity plaque: this mansion also houses the Nanjing Folk Museum and the Nanjing Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum. Instantly it felt like there was a whole world of information to take in.

Inside the garden, a grassy lawn spreads out lush and green, soothing and refreshing. A flagstone path curves around it. On the east and north sides, covered walkways line the area.

To the right of the flagstone path, a small pavilion with a red lantern serves as the main feature of the Ganxi Residence’s rear garden – called “Xiao Yuan” (Little Garden). In the distance, modern high-rises encircle the mansion.

After a short pause, I chose to start exploring from the left side. Along the left-hand perimeter wall runs a long corridor. Near the entrance and exit, a pair of rust-red metal lockers serve as storage – such thoughtful amenities in a scenic spot. I popped my bag into a locker and went on camera-in-hand only.

Under the corridor, beautiful lanterns hang with a distinct Qinhuai River vibe.

White walls, black tiles, and horse-head gables; some eaves are straight, others wave-like. The understated elegance of the architecture paired with lush greenery is incredibly pleasing.

Naturally, I entered Courtyard No. 17, which introduces the Jinling Workshop.

Inside, a modestly sized Chinese courtyard opens into layers of deeply extending structures. The layout is orderly and symmetrical; the rooms aren’t wide, but they progress gradually, leading you deeper and deeper.

The courtyard isn’t empty. As home to the Nanjing Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum, it now hosts various master craftsmen of Nanjing. Small rooms within provide spaces for inheritors of Nanjing folk culture and old artisans to create handicrafts. Each chamber showcases a craft from the Jinling Workshop. As we moved, one intangible cultural heritage treasure after another unfolded before our eyes.

On the left, a velvet flower workshop displays exquisite velvet floral fabric art.

Outside each exhibition room, written introductions help us understand these intangible cultural heritage items.

Chinese knotting: all sorts of Chinese knots woven from cord.

The cloth collage painting exhibition room was closed, so I could only learn about it through the text descriptions.

Between the first and second courtyards there’s a rather large courtyard. The Nanjing Folk Museum was established and opened to the public within this three-courtyard-deep structure and its western side wing of the Ganxi Residence.

Between the wings, the courtyards feature life-size bronze figures: children setting off firecrackers,

and sculptures of old Nanjing folk artisans – all trigger childhood memories.

The ground is paved with bluish-grey polished stone tiles. Carved doors and windows reveal a delicate refinement amidst simplicity, and palace-style lanterns hang from the roof. Looking through the layered doorways, you can see this is a large multi-courtyard, through-hall-style residence typical of Nanjing’s bigger dwellings.

Looking up at the towering compound walls gives a sense of being deep inside a grand mansion.

A diabolo workshop, filled with diabolos large and small.

A paper-cutting studio displays paper-cut works of all sizes. Nanjing paper-cutting blends the boldness of northern styles with the intricacy of southern styles. The artists cut directly without draft drawings, relying solely on mental conception; one snip in hand, and fluid lines flow out in one smooth go.

Besides the various intangible heritage crafts, there’s also a cultural creative shop in the compound.

The mansion is huge, with no fixed route. I wandered at will, turning down alleys as they came. In the courtyards, one often encounters protected ancient wells. Some are in open courtyards, some inside rooms, some under eaves, some beside doorsteps. The channels under the rooftop eaves direct rainwater through hidden gutters into the courtyard’s open spaces, embodying the idea of “all waters flow to the hall; rich water never drains away.”

I chanced upon a simple-looking house that turned out to be the former residence of Yan Fengying. I’d heard her opera when I was little, knew her as a Huangmei opera performing artist from Anhui, beautiful and sweet-voiced, but only today learned she was part of the Gan family. Detailed texts explain how, during her years in Nanjing, Yan Fengying met Gan Lüzhı of the Gan family, became his partner, and lived right here in the Gan Family Grand Courtyard. Her time in the Gan household, her growth and development there, and the Jingju (Beijing opera) and Kunqu opera arts she absorbed seeped into Huangmei tunes, transforming this small local opera into one of China’s five major opera genres and earning it a place in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage.

This is where Yan Fengying lived in the early post-revolution years while learning Jingju and Kunqu at the Gan Family Grand Courtyard. The bedroom contains simple but dignified furniture.

The beautiful queen of Huangmei opera.

There’s a large chamber here that currently serves as a temporary exhibition on “Traditional Nanjing Child-rearing and Wedding Customs.” Using numerous photographs, objects, and video displays, the museum reconstructs parts of Nanjing’s old neighborhoods, old trades, and cultural practices like child-rearing and wedding customs, as well as social folk customs.

In the exhibition hall, a grand red bridal sedan chair.

A large, brightly flower-printed cloth mattress where children can sit and play games.

Around the main hall, the space is divided into sections, introducing Nanjing folk culture through pictures, texts, and models.

Old Nanjing wedding customs – nacai, asking of names, nai, nazheng, qingqi, and welcoming the bride – are all presented here through various physical objects.

A long, narrow corridor between the wings.

Gate hall No. 15.

The second courtyard at 15 Nanbuting is the “Yougong Hall,” solemn and imposing, clearly a place where important events were once held.

The inner chamber of Yougong Hall: grand armchairs, ceremonial tables, ornate window lattice… Here the clan’s elders would receive guests, discuss affairs, and hold weddings, funerals, festivals, and ancestral rites.

Yougong Hall features, via text and pictures on panels and physical displays, the “History of the Jinling Gan Clan” exhibition under the theme “A Great Clan of the Southern Realm, a Prominent Lineage of Jiangnan.”

The exhibition traces the Gan family lineage back to Gan Mao, the Qin Dynasty prime minister of the Warring States period, and later renowned military commanders such as Gan Ning and Gan Zhuo. For centuries, the family upheld the spirit of “Yougong” (fraternal respect) as their family precept, cultivating a scholarly tradition and ritual propriety. Since the Qing Dynasty, they became a cultural family known for bibliophilism, literature, and geography. The Ganxi Residence was built by Gan Xi, a descendant, a renowned Qing-era literatus and local chronicler, who excelled in epigraphy, geomancy, astrology, and feng shui. The mansion remains the largest and best-preserved Qing residential complex in Nanjing, with immense historical, scientific, and tourism value.

The residence is composed of multi-courtyard structures linked in depth and enclosed by high walls. Ganxi Residence is precisely this kind of grand compound, with four clusters and five courtyards.

In this through-hall-style ancient complex, each group of buildings is separated by horse-head gables.

Courtyard and open-air spaces are paved with stone slabs, bricks, tiles, or cobblestones arranged in patterns. Regardless of size, every courtyard is adorned with rockeries, trees, and flowers.

The courtyards are planted throughout; tall greenery has grown as high as the walls.

The overall style: white walls, black tiles, clearly articulated courtyards – neither purely Huizhou nor entirely Suzhou style, but Nanjing’s own architectural character.

In the northeast corner of the mansion, there’s a small theater called “Liyuan Yayun” (Elegant Melodies of the Pear Garden). It was probably shut because there was no performance. Given there is a theater, this must be a gathering spot for opera lovers.

The east side of the mansion is open, with a lush, green courtyard.

In the courtyard stands a two-storey, five-bay-wide building: the Jindai Lou.

Jindai Lou is the Gan family’s library, built during the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty and a famous library in Qing-era Jinling (Nanjing). It was later destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion. The building we see today was reconstructed in 2007 by experts from Southeast University based on historical records. In the courtyard, a stone stele, “Record of Rebuilding Jindai Lou,” tells this story.

Walking around from the north side of Jindai Lou to the south side.

This is the rear garden of the Gan residence.

The Nanbuting courtyard’s east side, right next to the boundary wall, opens into an uncovered corridor.

Alongside the corridor, azaleas are at their most brilliant this season.

Looking from the corridor into the garden – ponds, rockeries, vegetation of varying sizes and hues – the garden’s beauty is rich and diverse.

Though the garden lacks the depth and breadth of Suzhou classical gardens, its style is concise and elegant. All the essential elements – covered walkways, pavilions, water – are here; rockeries and plants are carefully arranged, and the layering of greenery is artful. Just standing here quietly is an aesthetic pleasure.

View of Jindai Lou from the corridor.

Front-facing view of Jindai Lou from the south.

Before Jindai Lou, tall trees stand, with what look like artificial bird nests hanging from the branches.

Gazing from Jindai Lou over the garden: a wooden boardwalk meanders just above the pond, where red-tailed fish glide about.

A distant glance at the little pavilion.

I didn’t hurry over to the pavilion. Instead, I followed the corridor back into the compound of the residence.

Here is the fourth courtyard of Yougong Hall, still part of the “History of the Jinling Gan Clan” exhibition series.

The perspective in this photo gives a sense of the mansion’s depth.

The theme of the fourth courtyard: “Cultivating the National Essence with Confucian Grace.” Through text and photos, it introduces Gan Gongsan, the guardian of national cultural traditions. The Gan family has long been known as an “opera family,” and Gan Gongsan was its central figure. There’s information on Wang Jianyuan, a disciple of Mei (Lanfang) and the Gan family son-in-law; Gan Tao, a master of traditional Chinese music who cultivated a great number of musical talents for China; and Jinling’s renowned amateur performer Gan Lüzhı, who met, fell in love with, and married Huangmei opera master Yan Fengying.

Small courtyards separate the various wings of the mansion.

Here a section is dedicated to “Traditional Nanjing Residential Architecture.”

Panel texts and photos, combined with the mansion’s own “ninety-nine and a half rooms,” explain Nanjing’s traditional residential architectural art in detail.

It describes residential architectural ornamentation: wood or brick carvings on doors, windows, beams, ceilings, railings, partitions, and paving, with rich motifs including figures, flowers, birds, animals, scripts, folk tales, myths and legends – exquisite in design and auspicious in meaning.

Alongside texts and pictures, there are physical displays.

Exquisite brick carvings, richly detailed and lifelike.

A panoramic scale model of Ganxi Residence.

As you wander through the mansion, those with a poor sense of direction quickly get lost. But getting lost is also a pleasure, because everywhere there’s something beautiful to see.

Wandering aimlessly, I came upon the “Shoushi Xuan” (Longevity Stone Pavilion). The small courtyard has a row of rockeries on one side.

Within the rockery, a low, hidden cave passage leads to another courtyard.

The north-south oriented wings are not connected by side alleys, but by small chambers that served as studies. This shows how the courtyard grouping has a certain flexibility. The north-south spatial arrangement is relatively strict, while the east-west spacing is slightly more relaxed, making the spaces within the complex richly varied.

A little study, with different scenery on its north and south sides – each vividly distinct and quaint.

Inside the study, it was actually a family school where the Gan children received their earliest education.

A small courtyard. I lost track of the many courtyards within Ganxi Residence, but none were alike.

A narrow doorway leads us into yet another courtyard.

Here the rooms are used for a “Nanjing Opera Facial Makeup Exhibition.”

A southern magnolia stands in the courtyard.

After wandering around, I came back to the corridor that runs along the mansion’s edge.

Standing here and looking down at the garden, you can see how the whole residential complex is higher in the middle and lower around the perimeter.

Crossing the wooden boardwalk over the pond, I reached the square pavilion with upturned eaves on the east lawn – “Xiao Yuan.”

Walking to the southern end of the garden to view the library and the deep, straight-line wings alongside it. Here I paused and reflected on the path I’d just taken through the courtyards. The entire complex is a multi-courtyard through-hall structure composed of multiple courtyards. The main entrance lies along the central axis, perfectly symmetrical, clearly prioritized – higher in the center and lower at the edges, lower in the front and higher in the back, progressing step by step to a climax. The wings are linked by long, narrow service alleys and countless courtyards of varying sizes. In the garden, “every step reveals a new scene” – at each step, each glance back, each angle – all naturally composed, never repetitive.

Following the stone path, I returned to the central large lawn.

The entrance, also the exit, with its upturned eaves and veil of greenery. Ganxi Residence rests quietly here, serene as a weathered elder.

In a city as special as Nanjing, it has witnessed nearly all of modern China’s wars and turmoil, seen countless human joys and sorrows, meetings and partings. It carries these stories within its walls and now unfolds them slowly.

Even more delightfully, this mansion brings together the Nanjing Folk Museum and the Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum, making it a place for collecting and exhibiting folk objects, studying folk customs, and promoting outstanding traditional folk culture. Here, beyond admiring the architectural complex of “ninety-nine and a half rooms” – the wisdom of generations of the Gan family – one can also glimpse an encapsulation of old Nanjing urban culture, making it a vital site for experiencing Nanjing’s folk culture and intangible heritage. Ganxi Residence left me deeply enriched.