The Qiao Family Compound, with the big red lantern hanging high 172

The Qiao Family Courtyard is the most famous Jin merchant compound in Shanxi and one of the most visited tourist attractions in the country. Located in Qiaojiabao Village, Qixian County, Shanxi Province, 54 kilometres north of Taiyuan and just 2 kilometres south of Dongguan Town, the Qiao Family Compound, also known as Zhongtang, was the residence of Qiao Zhiyong, a nationally renowned commercial and financial capitalist of the Qing Dynasty. It was first built during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, and later had two additions and one expansion. After several generations of continuous efforts, a magnificent architectural group was built in the early years of the Republic of China and focused on the unique style of the northern residential houses of the Qing Dynasty in China. The Qiao Family Courtyard became famous because of the series "Qiao Family Courtyard", which was broadcast on CCTV in prime time.
The roadside is the Qiao Family Compound car park, and from the car park, you can walk along a line of stalls selling tourist souvenirs for four to five hundred metres to see the not-so-impressive main gate of the Qiao Family Compound. The Qiao Family Courtyard is one of the must-see attractions for tour groups, so there are a lot of group visitors, and it is also one of the smaller of the Shanxi Jin courtyards, so it can seem rather crowded.

The Qiao Family Courtyard is famous for its red lanterns, which were filmed here in 1991 for Gong Li's 'The Big Red Lantern Hangs High'.

The Qiao Family Compound was officially opened to the public in 1986 as the Qixian Folk Museum, and was the first Jin merchant compound in Shanxi to be opened to the public, and is now a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Qiao Family Compound is shaped like a castle, with three sides facing the street, surrounded by closed brick walls, more than three feet high, with a cover-up daughter wall and a watchtower, making it safe and secure, but also majestic and imposing.

The Qiao Family Compound was the residence of Qiao Zhiyong, a famous commercial and financial capitalist of the Qing Dynasty, formerly known as Zaizhongtang, and was listed as a provincial cultural heritage unit in 1965.

The layout of the compound is a "Xi" character, neat and symmetrical, lacking in grass and trees, and the hanging of red lanterns adds a touch of festivity to the depressing compound.

After entering the main gate, there is a straight 80-metre stone-paved pathway that divides the six compounds into two rows, north and south, with the Qiao family ancestral hall at the western end, which corresponds to the main gate.

The ancestral hall of the Qiao family compound is also very 'luxurious', with a couplet reflecting the pursuit of life of the Chinese in feudal society.

Opposite the main entrance is a brick wall carved with a hundred longevity figures, one after the other, each with its own style. The painting was written by Chang Zanchun, the grandson-in-law of the owner, Qiao Zhiyong, and a famous scholar and seal writer of the modern era.

The Qiao family compound covers an area of 4,175 square metres and is divided into six courtyards, 20 smaller courtyards and 313 houses.

The Qiao Family Courtyard has been hailed by experts and scholars as a shining pearl in the history of northern residential architecture. It is famous in three Jin dynasties and is known at home and abroad.

Most of the courtyards have a Fude Ancestral Hall.

The carved beams are similar but different, with exquisite wood, brick and stone carvings being common features of the Jin courtyards.

Perhaps since Zhang Yimou's famous 'The Big Red Lantern Hangs High', the big red lantern has become an indispensable prop in the Qiao family compound.

It is said that this is the bedroom of Gong Li's fourth aunt Songlian, who studied at university for half a year.

In fact, many of the courtyards were used for filming back in the day, with more than 40 films and TV dramas set here, in addition to the most famous one, The Big Red Lantern Hangs High.

The rhinoceros looking at the moon mirror in the third courtyard is a treasure of the Qiao family. It is two metres high and weighs one tonne, carved from iron pear wood from Southeast Asia, and is a national cultural relic.

The Nine Dragons Lamp, given to the Qiao family when the Empress Dowager Cixi fled west, is the second treasure of the Qiao family. Made of precious ebony wood, the lamp is 0.9 metres high and has nine moving dragons on its body.

The layers of wood carvings, plaques and paintings can also be dazzling, and the Jinshang Courtyard is typical of northern Chinese residential architecture.

Each courtyard is absolutely symmetrical and modest, yet the details reflect the pursuit and cultivation of the owner.

In the film 'The Big Red Lantern Hangs High', this enclosed compound is represented as a symbol of China's feudal society.

In fact, as a tourist, visiting a few of these compounds can be a little dull, and living here for the rest of your life is indeed a little unimaginable.

It is a good thing that the addition of these bright red lanterns to the grey and drab buildings makes it feel less depressing.

The big red lanterns hanging high have also become one of the main distinguishing features between the Qiao family compound and other Jin merchant compounds.

The similarity is that every Jin merchant compound is an 'art museum', full of traditional Chinese art, with brick carvings of 'qin, chess, calligraphy and painting' on the eaves.

Apart from the traditional Chinese stuff, the wood carvings of the Qiao family are also different in that you can see trains carved into the eaves of the roof.

The Qiao family compound is also rich in plaques, and there are many fine ones, such as this one inscribed by the famous calligrapher Fu Shan, 'The Pavilion of the Book of Seeds'.

One of the most valuable plaques in the Qiao Family Compound is the one inscribed by Fu Shan himself, 'Dan Feng Ge', which is full of stories and alludes to 'the fall of the country and the national tragedy'.

"In 1900, Empress Dowager Cixi was fleeing to the west, and when she passed through Shanxi, she borrowed 100,000 taels of silver from the Qiao family to show her gratitude.
The Qiao family compound was the first Shanxi Jin merchant compound to be opened to the public, and is also the representative work of the Jin merchant compound, the most famous Shanxi compound, although, in terms of scale, the Qiao family compound is far inferior to the Wang family compound, Chang family manor and other Jin merchant compounds, the Qiao family's fortune and decline also represent a period of the history of the Jin merchants, several ups and downs, until after 1949, the once-famous Qiao family only disappeared.