The best preserved ancient dwelling compound in China and a Cultural Relic under State-level Protection, the Ancient Resident in Xijia Mountain is located at Bashang Village in Xijja Mountain, which is 20 kilom away from Jiang’an Town of Jiang’an County. The ancient residence was built in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. It was repaired several times during Qing Dynasty and the period of Provisional Republican Government of China. It has been well preserved till today. Located in the south and facing the north, it is adjacent to Anyuan Mountain in the south and other small hill in the north, which gives the mountain an atmosphere of being worshiped by the masses and mountains around it. The ancient residence occupies a land of 68 hectares with a construction area of more than 10,000 square m. It was constructed with a wooden Chuan-Dou structure. There are 123 rooms in the house with big yards, high walls, suspended eaves, black tiles, ancient trees, and beautiful scenery.
The ancient residence is a compound of courtyard house. There are three sections in the house the front door, the front hall and the back hall are on the middle axes. There are three rooms well- arranged on each side of the middle axes. The whole layout is like a crane resting on an ancient vase and going to spread its wings to fly away, which means peace and auspice.
The three rooms in the east of the residence together with the parvis take the shape of Chinese characters “paper, ink, pen and inkstone” respectively. There are pond, back garden, west garden and east garden in the residence. The residence was well arranged and tinged with folk features in architecture from the Song and Ming Dynasties. The decorations on the main building are solemn and also full of vividness and wisdom of mankind. Varying in styles and patterns, they never fail to give prominence to the main building. There are clouds, water, lotus and other auspicious figures on the end of the poles and humps. The end of the ridge were raised up and decorated with pieces of china and applique.
On the east, there is a garden inside another garden. There is a more than 200 year old lilac tree, a very tall old banyan tree and a ten meter high old pine in the garden. Their roots meet under the ground and branches are connected together in the sky, implying “The doctrine of the mean”. There are hectares of Phoebe bournei planted 300 years ago around the house with thousands of egrets resting among them, forming a special scene.
With a reputation of “The Fossil of Chinese Folk Architecture” and”The Essence of Chinese Folk Architecture”, it is of great value to the study of the history of folk architecture, folk art and folk customs of China.