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| Rongguofu, Zhengding County Shijiazhuang, Hebei |
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| Ningrong Street, Zhengding County Shijiazhuang, Hebei |
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| A Dream of Red Mansion, Zhengding County, Shijiazhuang |
Wednesday Oct 16 2024 (Shijiazhuang, Hebei) Part 2 - this post focused on our group's visit to a popular touristy place in Shijiazhuang ie Rong Mansion & A Dream of Red Mansion. Took a metro from our hotel to Liuxingzhuang station followed by an e-hailing cab to Rongguofu Mansion.
Rongguofu (Rong Mansion), 51, Xingrong Road, Zhengding County, Shijiazhuang - a strictly made & built according to Chinese classic "Dream of Red Mansions", it is an antique architectural building with Ming & Qing styles, splits into 2 parts the branch & the street. Zhengding Rongguofu is a multi-integrated courtyard in the shape of two-story hatchback, the entire residence is split into the middle, east & west three roads, each of which is five-in-four courtyard.
1) Rongguofu Scenic Spot Front Gate, Zhengding County, Shijiazhuang.
2) Introduction to Zhending Rong Mansion - Zhending Rong Mansion is the earliest film & TV shooting base in China & was built under the auspices of Comrade Xi Jinping, then Secretary of CPC Zhengding County Committee. As a pseudo-classic architectural complex featuring Ming & Qing styles, Rong Mansion was strictly designed & built according to the Chinese classic novel Dream of the Red Mansion & its consists of 2 parts, the mansion & the street. The construction broke ground in December 1984, was completed & open to the public in July 1986, covered 3.67 hectares & cost over 3.7 million yuan.
Red Mansion was modeled on a mansion house of the nobility in Dream of the Red Mansion described as "a mansion of deity with gold gates & jade windows, a splendid residence of noble concubine" with site area of 22,000 sq meters, a floor area of 4,700 sq meters 212 rooms & 102 verandas. The entire residence is split into three rows: the middle, the east & the west rows, each of which consists of five courtyards. The middle row is Jia Zheng's office courtyards that adopt tangents circle patterns, while the the est & west rows are inner chambers for womenfolk that adopt lively Suzhou painting style & are furnished with elegant decorations, exquisite & sumptuous Ming & Qing style furniture as well as over 1,600 antiques & paintings which reproduced the magnificent of the "the noble & literary family living as extravagant life".
Modeled on the Qianlong Southern Inspection Tour, Ningrong Street is 200 meters long covering a site area of 15,000 sq meters, a floor area of 1,700 sq meters, 120 well-arranged rooms make up of 51 shops of of varied styles, the street is filled with flying wine banners & competing plaques which recreates the Flourishing Age of Emperors Kangsi & Qianlong.
After the completion of Rong Mansion, Dream of the Red Mansion was shot here for nearly 2 months with over 2,000 shots where highlight seems as such as "Homecoming of Yuanchun (highest ranking imperial concubine" & "Holding Funeral Procession of Qing Keqing" were all shot here. Later, Snow Mountain Flying Fox, Kangsi Dynasty, Who Rules over the Dynasty of China Everblooming Begonia, Dream of the Red Mansion (young generation of backbone actors & actresses starring) & other over 200 movies & TV plays were shot here & it was once knows as the "Hollywood" in China !
The construction of Rong Mansion has immensely drive the development of Zhengding tourism sector, blazed a trail for tourism industry nationwide & been hailed as "China tourism follows the Zhengding model". It was recognised by China National Tourism Administration as advanced engineering in capital construction in 1991, and was approved by the County People's Government as a Key Cultural Relic Unit under County Protection in 1995. It was approved as an AAAA National Tourist Attractions by China National Tourist Administrations in 2012.
3) Ningrong Street, Zengding County, Shijiazhuang - located the right side of Red Mansion, a business street with ancient atmosphere; not much happening in this street when our group made a visit in the late afternoon !
4) Entrance to Rong Mansion - free admission for Seniors above 70s year old, just present your ID or passport to enter !
5) Cao Xueqin (Author of the novel A Dream of Red Mansion) Memorial Profile - covers an area of 960 sq meters, for binary siheyuan, courts have rooms between 23 main exhibition hall is divided into 6 parts, the 1st is the introduction of Cao Xueqin, the 2nd Cao Xueqin reading room, 3rd is hundred year redology exhibition, the 4th is Cao's family exhibition, the 5th is redology masters exhibition, the 6th is red chamber culture exhibition. According to historical records, Cao's father was a descendant of a Song dynasty's royal king family. Various memorial items of Cao were on display ie artwork, books, master piece of a Dream of Red Mansions, life history, personal effects depicting Cao's family generations from rise to fall & the relevant redology books by masters & scholars whose thinking had one way or another shaped the oriental world !
6) Culture of A Dream of Red Mansions - Audio video quotes " The Book A Dream of Red Mansions mainly tells about the life of aristocratic families ie Kangsi, Yongzheng & Qianlong periods of the Qing dynasty of China, The book involves social customs, character's costumes, & daily utensils at that time. Some related costumes & supplies are exhibited here so that the visitors can have a deeper understanding.
7) South of Facing Wall, A Dream of Red Mansion - Audio video quotes "South Facing Wall is the place for Jia Zheng (Vice Director of Ministry of Works) to meet common guests. This scene is Homecoming of Yuanchun, the Imperial Consort, Yuanchun is the eldest daughter of Jia Zheng, born on the Lunar New Year's Day. As she possessed both integrity & ability & was chosen as the imperial concubine & later conferred the title of Worthy & Virtuous Consort. The emperor had granted that Yuanchun could pay a visit to her parents at the upcoming Lantern Festival. In order to welcome the homecoming imperial consort, the Jia family built a Grand View Garden with huge money for the occasion ".
8) Hall of Glorious Felicity, A Dream of Red Mansion, Shijiazhuang - Audio video quotes" The hall for Jia Zheng to deal with official business, meet senior officials and hear the imperial edicts. Hall of Glorious Felicity is named for the meaning of Luxury and Ease, Blessings in Abundance. On the facade wall there is a large scroll picture of black dragons riding with the waves. Dragon represents the emperor in ancient times, riding the waves means paying consort, so he could have the honour to hang this picture to show hos glorious status. The furniture, lattice, & ground partition are all made of rosewood. It's the room with the largest area & costing the highest price in Rong Mansion "
9) Gifts & souvenirs shop, A Dream of Red Mansion, Shijiazhuang
10) Aunt Zhou's Room, A Dream in Red Mansion, Shijiazhuang - Audio video quotes "Aunt Zhou is Jia Zheng's concubine. Because she din't give birth to a child for Jia Zheng, she was thought unfilial for no descendants in feudal society, so her status in Jia Mansion was low. In A Dream in Red Mansion, her image is described very little "
11) Classical dressing photography, A Dream Of Red Mansion
12) Aunt Zhao's Room, A Dream in Red Mansion, Shijiazhuang - Audio Video quotes " Aunt Zhao was Jia Zheng's concubine, Tanchun & Jia Huan's mother, She was confused by nature & had a bad mind. She was not reconciled to her status as a concubine. She made troubles many times & tried to elevate the status of herself & her son Jia Huan in Jia Mansion. She had a pungent character. This scene presents that Tanchun bid farewell to her mother when she got married "
13) Madam Wang's Room, A Dream in Red Mansion, Shijiazhuang - "Madam Wang is Jia Zheng's wife and Jia Zhu, Jia Yuanchun & Jia Baoyu's mother. She is a figure linked with 4 main families ie Jia Family, Shi Family, Wang Family & Xue Family. Madam Wang's character seems to be peaceful, but in fact is extremely calculated & powerful. Once someone violated the feudal ethics, her reaction was quick & decisive. As a noble woman who safeguards feudal moral standards, Madam Wang presents her most essential aspect".
Audio Guide quotes " Lady Wang is the official wife of Jia Zheng, the mother of Jia Yuanchun, Jia Zhu & Jia Baoyu. She is the person of relevance for the 4 families. As she fasted & prayed to Buddha everyday, she was always said as kind & charitable. Actually she was not kind in heart though with a kind face. Two girls were dead because of her, her maid Jinchuan was driven away by her, Baoyu's friend Qingwen was also driven away by her in the search of Grand View Garden"
14) Scene Display of Qin Keqing's Funeral Ceremony, A Dream in Red Mansion - Audio video quaotes " Qin Keqing was Jia Zhen's daughter-in-law & also Jia Rong's wife. She was slender in figure, gentle & peaceful in character. Grandmother Jia praised her as the most favourite person among great-grandsons-in-law. Qin Keqing's funeral was extravagant, and her father-in-law, Jia Zhen, did not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to prepare for her funeral. This scene is scaled down by 5:1 and consists of 148 characters models that are more than one foot high. At that time, more than 1,000 figurants, participated in the shooting at Ningrong Street. The scene was grand unprecedently, which presented the prosperity of Jia Mansion "
15) Scene of Daiyu's Burying Flower - Lin Daiyu was a quick-witted & sentimental girl. Her parents died early & she lived in Jia Mansion, living a life by depending on others. She saw flowers falling all over the floor, which reminded her of own lonely life. ZSo, she put petals of the fallen flowers into a flower bag & buried them & eventually sang the son "Song of Burying Flowers"
16) The Grand Drama Viewing Hall, A Dream of Red Mansion, Shijiazhuang
17) Rongguofu Scenic Spot by Night, A Dream of Red Mansion, Shijiazhuang
18) After a visit to the Rongguofu (A Dream of Red Mansion), took a e-hailing cab to Liuxinzhuang Metro station for a train ride to Ping'an Dajie Metro station located nearby our hotel.
19) Small Eat - dinner in a western style restaurant in a shopping mall nearby our hotel, savoured a plate of meat sauce cheese baked rice Rmb12 (Rm7.20) + tomato risotto Rmb17 (Rm10.20) + free flow of juice drink !
20) Took 3 pictures of an AI robot in action in a hotel lift ! AI robot entering the hotel lift delivering room service food to our hotel guest ! Highly intelligent, could speak & ask anyone to give way if standing in front of the robot or blocking the robot's path ! One up in the world of food service hospitality industry !
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