[2025 Huimin Attraction] Travel Guide for Wei Family Manor (Updated Apr)

Wei's Manor is located in Weiji Town, Huimin County, Shandong Province. It is an important national cultural relic protection unit and a national AAA-level tourist Attraction. It is known as the "Three Major Manors in China" together with Yantai Mou's Manor and Sichuan Liu Wencai Manor. It is the only castle-style manor in China. The Wei family is a famous and prominent family in northern Shandong. More than 20 people from six generations have served as officials in the court, and the highest rank is the second rank. It owns more than 3,000 acres of fertile land around Weiji Village, and has opened many banks and pawnshops in North China. It used "Xiehe" and "Xiezeng" as its business names. It is a prominent family that integrates bureaucrats, landlords, and businessmen. The Wei Manor consists of three groups of buildings: Shude Hall, Xiyi Hall and Fushou Hall. It was built in the Qing Dynasty. It is large in scale and well-built, covering an area of 32,543 square meters. There are nearly 100 houses now, and it has a history of more than 100 years. Among them, Shude Hall is unique. It was the private residence of Wei Zhaoqing, the Tongzhi of Wuding Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty. It was built from the 16th to the 19th year of Emperor Guangxu's reign (1890-1893 AD). It was designed by a master of the Palace Construction Society and carefully constructed by many skilled craftsmen. The manor faces east and is magnificent. It consists of residences, squares, ponds, gardens and ancestral halls. Its characteristic is that it integrates the city wall buildings with military defense functions with the traditional Chinese Beijing courtyard-style dwellings, forming a unique architectural style. The castle-style residence is the main body of the manor complex. The city wall is rectangular in plan, following the architectural model and characteristics of ancient Chinese city walls. It has city gates, city gate towers, and horse faces, and creatively adds bunkers protruding from the wall. The city wall is 10 meters high and 1.5 meters wide at the top, with crenels and parapets. There are 13 niches around the inner wall for armed personnel to shoot outward. The parapet of the northern city wall is jagged, and the narrow part can only accommodate one person, reflecting the military defense idea of "one man guarding the pass, ten thousand men cannot open it". Because of its strong military defense color and the application of city wall architecture in traditional folk houses, it is a model of the application of Sun Tzu's Art of War in folk houses. The inner part is the core of the manor complex. It was designed and constructed according to the "Rules of Engineering of the Ministry of Works" of the Qing Dynasty. Each single building is arranged along the longitudinal axis to form its own independent unit. It is connected by ceremonial gates, lanes and secret passages, and it also cleverly combines the architectural art of the northern courtyard with the architectural art of the southern loft. It not only inherits the symmetry, rigor and strength of northern architecture, but also reflects the flexible and changeable spatial layout of southern architecture. The manor has a mill yard, and a large amount of coal is buried underground in the mill yard to store bulk grain and oil. In case of war or famine for many years, the city gates are closed for three years. Without foreign aid, there is still food, clothing and useful things, which reflects the self-sufficient economic form of feudal society. Xiyi Hall and Fushou Hall are finely crafted, with their own styles and obvious regional colors. Wei's Manor has a profound cultural heritage, reflecting the superb architectural art and the profound Chinese culture. With the increase in maintenance and development efforts in recent years and the enrichment of internal displays, the manor strives to restore its former glory and become a good place for people to experience the colorful folk culture of northern Shandong.