Yi De Hotel, Pingyao, China
www.yide-hotel.com/zhonghe0.htm
| Number of Rooms : 22 rooms

About

This property is the favourite of the editor of this website.
Yide Hotel is situated in a quiet little blind alley just a few minutes' walk from the main street, Nan Dajie. The guesthouse is a beautifully renovated courtyard house built in 1736 by a wealthy merchant during the reign of Emperor Qianlong.
The old residence of Hou Wangbin originally consisted of six courtyards; No. 16 (upper yard), No. 14 (lower yard), No. 18 (study room) and No. 20 (carriage and horse yard) in Shaxiang Street, No. 9 Xishitoupo Lane (ancestral temple) and No. 6 Xiguojia Lane (garden).
All rooms have air conditioning and heating, bathroom and large kang-style beds that are heated in winter.
The old residence is not only indicative of the level of ancient architecture and the lifestyle of the original inhabitants, but also reflects a mix of ancient politics, economy, philosophy, ethics, culture, art as well as local lifestyles and customs. As you enter these ancient buildings, you can begin to absorb some of these, now distant and largely forgotten, cultural traditions of a past society.

History / Background

Yide Hotel was once the home of Hou Wangbi. What follows is a brief history of the numerous developments that have occurred during its lifetime.
The house – located on the east side of Eastern Shaxiang Street - was built between 1736 and 1795 during the Qing Dynasty. Hou Wangbin was a man seriously involved in trade and managed the Tianchengheng shop. The Hou family acquired the house in the Guanxu period and later rebuilt it. The buildings included NO.14(Xiayuan), NO.16(Shangyuan), NO.18(study),NO.20(a courtyard for the horses), NO.6(garden) and NO.9(ancestral temple). These six houses each served different roles. NO.14 and NO.20 - symmetrical dwellings - were located in a broad alley. NO.14 facing south. Each courtyard had two small parts: the front part consisted of cave dwellings. The arrangement was perfect. NO.18 was a good place for reading as it was very quiet and clean, while the gate of NO.20 was next to the gate of the study, the front gate was near the Gongquan Gate conveniently placed for the horses and carriages. Halls and porches went from the south to the north.
Tianchengheng Exchange Shop
Tianchengheng was formerly named Xibuzhuang. In 1826, its name was changed to Exchange Shop. At the beginning, the bosses were from two villages in Jiexiu: Beipiao and Zhanglan; the family names were Hou and Ma. When the shop traded in clothing, the boss was Ma Zhu. Unfortunately, the shop eventually went bankrupt. Hou, however, invested in it and gradually it began to flourish. They changed its name to Hou.
Tiancheng was run under flexible management, its tenet being “to bring those thrown away”. In the challenging competition, it extended its scope to many distant areas. The senior partners were wealthy but Hou himself led a simple life.
Under the management of the Wangbin, the business encompassed many different areas. In 1921, the shop was lacking in capital and was forced to fragment. It began dealing primarily in finance.