The memory of the old house is timeless
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > centennial homestead</h1>
The former site of Mengxuetang (the second site of Mengxuetang) is located on the corner of the sea on the east side of Beacon Mountain (now No. 6 Anhai Road), only one wall away from Yangjiayuan, which has the reputation of "Gulangyu Palace of Versailles", surrounded by green trees, red tiles and white walls and shadows, quiet and quiet, beautiful.
The former site of the MengxueTang
Completed in 1908, this old mansion was 100 years old and was originally the private residence of the Yin family. Soon after its completion, the mansion was transferred to a merchant named Qiu Yangjin. In the following years, Meng Xuetang was able to run the school here free of charge, which was inseparable from the full support of Qiu Yangjin.
Elevation view of the former site of the Mengxuetang
The main body of the former site of Mengxuetang is a two-storey veranda-style building with gray plastered façade, white gray walls, and two-slope roof. The plan of the building is rectangular, facing north and south, and the south façade is equipped with a veranda on both floors, which is a neo-Renaissance style coupon gallery with seven consecutive round arches. Each floor of the building has five narrow rooms with north-south access, which can be used as classrooms.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="44" > enlightenment</h1>
"Mongolian learning", as the name suggests, is "the study of enlightenment". Meng Xuetang is a preschool institution that receives and educates preschool children (4-8 years old), and its predecessor was the family kindergarten founded in 1898 by the wife of George M. Wales, a British Presbyterian missionary, on Guxin Road. This is probably the earliest kindergarten in China, so it is called "the first kindergarten in China". She also designed a teaching method between kindergarten and primary school according to the age of the children.
Historical photographs of the Montfarst
Between 1908 and 1911, pastor Wei's family kindergarten was moved to the house on An Hai Road and renamed "Meng Xuetang". Mengxuetang has played an important role in the history of preschool education in Gulangyu Island, and some of the celebrities in the early days of Gulangyu Island were enlightened in this small school. Lin Qiaozhi, a famous medical scientist born in Gulangyu Island and the founder of Chinese obstetrics and gynecology medicine, mentioned in his memoirs that he studied at this Mongolian school and received enlightenment education here.
Lin Qiaozhi (1901-1983)
In 1911, Mengxuetang was relocated again to the old building of "Huairen Women's School" (now No. 83 Yongchun Road) and renamed "Huaide Kindergarten", which was the predecessor of Gulangyu Sunshine Kindergarten. The former site of the Mengxuetang was bought by Wu Tianding, an overseas Chinese in the Philippines, and a plaque of "Wu Tianding Pavilion" was added to the railing on the second floor of the entrance of the building. Therefore, the former site of Mengxuetang is also known as "Wu Tian Ding Pavilion".
The former site of Mengxuetang is a representative of the preschool education facilities in Gulangyu Island in the early 20th century, which was an important part of the education system of Gulangyu Island at that time, and witnessed the development of Gulangyu Education.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="46" > "past and present lives"</h1>
At the end of the last century, after Wu Tianding's descendants returned to the Philippines, the house people went to the empty building, and after decades of wind and rain, the old house once became a dangerous house.
In 2012, the old Mengxuetang site was protected, and during the renovation process, only the dead leaves that were cleared out were transported for two full days. After the completion of the renovation, the former site of the Mengxuetang, which had been a dangerous building for 30 years, was finally restored to its glory and is now also developed for use as an exhibition hall.
The reuse of the old site of Mengxuetang is one of the typical cases of the new use of old houses in the historical international community of Gulangyu Island today, so that the combination of protection and utilization, so that the old buildings that span a hundred years of age can be reborn in the present, showing their cultural charm and value, which is the meaning of the protection of old buildings.
Source: Gulangyu Island