Built in 1926, the Der-Xing Residence is a townhouse in the Western-style, its façade a Baroque red-brick edifice whose capitals simplify the Greek order and whose ornamental details reinterpret traditional bracket forms. Motifs of flora and auspicious creatures blend East and West, while richly colored ceramic tiles enliven every surface; in its day, few could rival the lavish materials used for both exterior and interior.
On Shenkeng Old Street, the “Der-Xing Residence” belonged to Huang De-long, a descendant of Huang Zhong-shu, who ran a grocery and coal business. Legend says Huang dreamed of Lü Dong-bin at the Zhinan Temple instructing him to prospect for gold in Jiufen; the strike made him Shenkeng’s wealthiest man. In gratitude he donated the temple’s Fude Shrine and the Seven-Star Pond, and in 1926 began erecting a three-storey Western townhouse that he named “Der-Xing Residence.” It became the grandest foreign-style building on the street during the Japanese era and remains the landmark of Shenkeng Old Street—this is the legendary tale behind the Der-Xing Residence.