aeeble

Xizhi Old Street, centered along Zhongzheng and Jiadong Roads, winds loosely around the train station; since the Qing dynasty this has been the liveliest part of town. Though times have changed, a single step into the old street seems to cut one off from the outside world, letting mottled red bricks and mossy stains recount the past. Beside the Xizhi interchange stands an old Baroque-style building. This two-story mansion, built in the 15th year of the Taishō era (1926), is over ninety years old. Its builder, Chen Wanqi, started out in the Chinese-medicine trade and became one of Xizhi’s wealthiest residents. Constructed over many years with materials brought from the mainland and designed by Quanzhou craftsmen, it is a classic fusion of Baroque and early modern styles. The façade’s pointed gable—its “pediment”—is a hallmark of early modernism. Today it is one of the few well-preserved ancestral homes on Xizhi Old Street, its antique flavor standing in vivid contrast to the surrounding high-rises and illustrating the overlap of eras.