Zishantang in Shen'ao Village, Tonglu, Zhejiang

Located in Houju Alley, Shen'ao Village, Jiangnan Town, Zishantang was built during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, according to 80-year-old Shentu Shusong. Originally built by the ancestors of the seventh branch of the family, it was later sold to the fifth and sixth branches and remains in use today.  The building covers an area of 242.5 square meters and faces southwest. It features brick hollow walls, staggered straight masonry, and a brick-wood structure, forming a three-bay, two-story courtyard house.  The roof is a double-sloped hard mountain roof with horse head walls. The first floor has a stone gate, with three pillars and five purlins in the central bay and side doors on both sides of the rear corridor. The courtyard is paved with stone slabs and surrounded by double eaves, with two-story side wings on the north and south sides, each with two pillars and three purlins and a double-sloped hard mountain roof. The second floor has five pillars and seven purlins in the central bay, with a front corridor and side doors on both sides. The entire building has a rigorous layout, with simple and unsophisticated decorative carvings. It is one of the buildings in the Shen'ao Village complex, a provincial key cultural relic site.