This is the place where people lived at that time, which branded the social life dominated by the Mei family for decades, and it was also the stage for the historical and cultural development and evolution of the hometown of overseas Chinese. It records the style and features of that era and the changes of modern history, and contains the aura of overseas Chinese culture. It is a historical and cultural landscape where Chinese and foreign cultures blend in a specific era and region. Meijia Courtyard is one of the rare overseas Chinese buildings with considerable scale in China. It is not only a typical representative of overseas Chinese architecture and one of the important symbols of "the first hometown of overseas Chinese", but also a valuable historical and cultural heritage.

Mount Tai: Museum of Foreign Architecture

Walking in the towns, streets or villages of Taishan, the most striking thing is the old buildings full of historical vicissitudes and obvious combination of Chinese and western. Taishan people collectively refer to these foreign buildings funded by overseas Chinese as foreign buildings. There is a difference between a foreign building and a watchtower. The watchtower is mainly defensive, and the foreign building is mainly residential. Taishan foreign buildings are numerous and diverse in style, and can be called "foreign building architecture museum". According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 65438+100000 foreign buildings in Mount Tai, most of which have a history of hundreds of years, which is amazing. From the architectural style and scale, Wengjialou and Meijia Courtyard in Duanfen and Fuyue Village in Doushan Town are undoubtedly the representatives of Taishan House.

Numerous old buildings and foreign buildings have formed a number of arcade fairs, which reached its peak in the 1940s and developed to more than 160, becoming a beautiful landscape in Wuyi hometown of overseas Chinese. The Meijia Courtyard, an overseas Chinese complex in Tingjiang Market, is a model of these arcade markets.

Driving on a straight country road with neat trees in the hometown of overseas Chinese, through a large green rice field, dotted with watchtowers, quaint schools and Weizhen buildings along the way, the beautiful rural scenery suddenly makes people relaxed and happy. The Meijia Courtyard stands quietly at the end of this idyllic scenery. Against the blue sky, people suddenly think that they have entered the declining ancient Roman market or a movie full of nostalgia.

The "Window" of Western Architectural Art

Meijia Courtyard is located on the Datong River in Duanfen Town, Taishan City. Founded on 193 1 by local overseas Chinese with Mei surname and their relatives. The compound covers an area of 80 mu, and there are arcades 108 on the second and third floors, which are arranged in a rectangular array. The roof of the building is the traditional hard roof in China, with brick walls and tile roofs, but the "facade", windows and balconies are all in the architectural styles of Greek, Roman and Spanish countries, with high colonnades, circular arches, stained glass and exquisite balconies; There are also mountain flower decorations commonly used in western architecture, some are triangular, rectangular, some are round holes and arcs, and some are all kinds of gray plastic patterns, which are very beautiful and of great architectural artistic value, and are the "windows" for people to understand and appreciate western architectural art.

At the beginning of its construction, its planning and design was that the owners integrated the local customs and architectural features of their respective countries into China's architectural art, so the buildings in the compound not only showed the architectural styles of European and American countries, but also reflected the traditional architectural art of China; Although each building is well planned, its appearance is different, which is not only ahead of the architectural trend of Weizhen at that time, but also reflects the thinking and living standards of the people in the hometown of overseas Chinese to some extent. Every building in the whole compound has been eroded by wind and rain for more than 70 years, but its original appearance is still relatively complete. Guo Dongpo, director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office in the State Council, Lu, director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office in the province, and some experts and scholars in the domestic architectural field all believe that Meijia Courtyard is a typical representative of the best-preserved overseas Chinese architecture in China. Movies such as "Provisional President" and "Burning Cloud", and TV dramas of Guangdong TV Station and Spanish National TV Station reflecting the situation of overseas Chinese are also filmed on location, which makes Meijia Courtyard enjoy a certain popularity and be listed as the focus of provincial cultural relics protection. Therefore, Meijia Courtyard has high historical value and appreciation value, and it is a good place to develop tourist attractions.