Dingxiang Garden

Dingxiang Garden (丁香花园, Dīngxiāng Huāyuán) at 849 Huashan Road is a garden villa built for Li Jingmai (李经迈), a son of Li Hongzhang (李鸿章). A popular story says Li Hongzhang built it for a concubine named Dingxiang, but the sources consulted reject that account.

Li Jingmai was born to a concubine of Li Hongzhang. He lived in the house in later life and died in 1940. The date of construction is not settled. One 2007 article says the house was built in the 1920s, years after Li Hongzhang’s death. Chinese Wikipedia places the main house in the early period of the 1911 Revolution and dates one auxiliary building to 1918.

Sources do not agree on details of the story: one calls her Li Hongzhang’s seventh concubine, another his ninth. Both say the story is not true, and the 2007 article adds that Li Hongzhang never lived in the house.

After Li Jingmai’s death his son Li Guochao (李国超) sold the property. In 1942 the China United Film Company (中华联合制片股份有限公司) was founded here. After 1949 the site served as the headquarters of the East China Bureau of the Communist Party. Chinese Wikipedia lists the main building as three storeys with a trapezoidal central projection, set in grounds of about 20,400 square metres with a lawn, a large garden and a glazed-tile dragon wall over 100 metres long. It describes the style as mainly that of an English country-house villa with elements of southern Chinese gardens.

The villa was listed in 1994 as a Shanghai Outstanding Historical Building and, according to Chinese Wikipedia, recognised on 4 April 2014 as a municipal cultural heritage protection unit.

Chinese Wikipedia says one building now houses the Shanghai Old Cadres Activity Center and another a restaurant. Public access to the main buildings and garden has not been confirmed, so treat the site as something to see from outside unless you confirm otherwise.