The model of Chaoyang West Garden was sent to the Beijing National Exposition for display and won the highest prize, and Empress Dowager Cixi praised it as "the West Garden is a must in Lingnan Gardens". And this garden owner full of praise is little known, he is the patriotic industrialist of the late Qing Dynasty - Xiao Qin. He set up a yidu in Chaoyang, dredged the moat, facilitated the transportation of passengers and goods between Chaoyang, Puning, Huilai and other counties and Shantou, and also donated huge funds to build the Yellow River embankment, doing his best to benefit the local people.
The fortress stone is the top of the mountain, and the pond pavilion is drawn.
Jiang Shan Man said that the chaoyang is good, only for the West Garden to come together.
—— Qiu Fengjia
This is one of the thirty-eight poems written by Qiu Fengjia in Chaoyang West Garden. Not only Qiu Fengjia, Kang Youwei, Lin Boqian, Xia Tonghe, Lin Zuoxi, etc. successively came to this garden inscription and left a batch of poems. What kind of garden is so favored by celebrities? This is the hand of the famous Lingnan architect Xiao Meixian, built in the West Garden during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty.
In 1908, the model of the West Garden was sent to the Beijing National Exposition for exhibition and won the highest prize, and Empress Dowager Cixi praised it after watching it in person, saying that "the West Garden is a must in Lingnan Gardens". And this garden owner full of praise is little known, he is the patriotic industrialist Xiao Qin in the late Qing Dynasty.
Xiao Qin was born in 1857 to a poor family in Chaoyang County. At the age of 15, in order to make ends meet, he went to the county wharf to set up a stall and began his career as a hawker. After a few years, he turned to an old carpenter to learn the craft of carpentry. Xiao Qin was intelligent and skillful since childhood, and it did not take long for xiao Qin to learn a good craft, and because of his superb craftsmanship and exquisite workmanship, the number of customers who came to order various furniture and crafts was increasing. The booming business saved him a sum of money. Dissatisfied with the status quo, he decided to open a wood shop in Shantou to seek more development opportunities.
In Shantou, which has recently opened its port, foreigners continue to pour in, engage in trade and other activities, and it is inevitable to build houses and settle down. When he first arrived, Xiao Qin undertook the construction of a British merchant's civil structure "Fanzai Building". The strict British merchants were very picky, and the whole building could not be completed twice to satisfy him. At this time, Xiao Qin had already lost his blood and could not continue, so he had to rework with the support of relatives and friends. After the third reconstruction, the building was finally satisfied by the owner. The British businessman saw that Xiao Qin was honest, scrupulously trustworthy, and valued his honest and honest nature, so he hired him as a comprador of a foreign firm and handled business. It was the experience of the foreign compradors that gave him the opportunity to become familiar with business contacts, and soon after, Xiao Qin set up his own portal, relying on keen business acumen and excellent business skills, exported various local products, imported various foreign goods, founded the ESSE construction factory, and became the earliest comprador capitalist in Chaoyang. According to historical records, he spent 50,000 yuan in the eighteenth year of Guangxu (1892 AD), purchased eight passenger ships, and established the Shanchao Jie Steamship Company, which operated passenger and cargo transportation between Shantou and Chaoyang and Jieyang. He also set up a joint venture with the clan to open Shantou, Jieyang Yihe and Zhuangyin and issue banknotes; set up a shipping house, a Chinese-funded cigarette factory, and an oil press. Later, with a sole investment of 200,000 yuan, it purchased the beach land left and right of the Shantou Christian Baptist Chapel, and continued to build the buildings and warehouses in the lower sections of an, angry, Fu'an, Zhenbang and other streets to Haiqian Inner Street, becoming a famous real estate developer in Shantou. ”
After becoming an industrialist on the rich side, Xiao Qin still did not forget to be enthusiastic about public welfare undertakings. In 1888, he donated funds to build the Tongqing ShanTang with Chenghai merchant Jia Tong, set up a yidu in Chaoyang, dredged the moat, facilitated the transportation of passengers and goods between Chaoyang, Puning, Huilai and other counties and Shantou, and also donated huge funds to build the Yellow River embankment, doing his best to benefit the local people.
Regrettably, in the same year that the West Garden, which he had painstakingly built, won the highest prize at the Beijing National Exposition, Xiao Qin, who was only 52 years old at the time, passed away. His descendants made great achievements, and his eldest son, Xiao Yongsheng, was elected as the first premier of the Shantou General Chamber of Commerce in 1906, and together with Huang Yujun raised funds to establish the first waterworks plant in Shantou in Wuqiao, which can be said to be one of the founders of Shantou Water Industry.
Disclaimer: This article does not represent our views and is for the reader's information only. The copyright of the article belongs to the original author, if there is any infringement, please contact us to delete it.