Cao Family Garden
Cao's Garden, located on Wuma Road in Hebei District, Tianjin, was originally Sun's Garden. In the late Qing Dynasty, it was built by Sun Zhongying, a comprador and arms merchant. Today, it is the location of the 254th Hospital of the People's Liberation Army. Sun Zhongying, a native of Nanjing, Jiangsu, initially worked in a bank in Shanghai. In the 16th year of Emperor Guangxu's reign (1890), he came to Tianjin to do business and worked as a comprador in a foreign company. He met Li Hongzhang and then engaged in arms business, making a lot of money. In the 29th year of Emperor Guangxu's reign (1903), it was the period of development of the Hebei New District. He bought land in Hebei, starting from Yuanwei Road in the west, Zhouwei Road in the east, Wuma Road in the south, and Xinkai River in the north, covering an area of more than 200 acres, built a house and a private garden. The garden is full of flowers and trees, pavilions and pavilions, and the stream flows around, which is also quite elegant, so it is called Sun's Garden. In the 32nd year of Emperor Guangxu's reign (1906), in order to make friends with the new rich, he sold the garden privately to Cao Kun. Cao Kun, courtesy name Zhongshan, was from Tianjin and sold cloth in his early years. In the eighth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1882), he joined the Xinjian Army as a soldier and was selected to study at the Tianjin Military Academy. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, he attached himself to Yuan Shikai and was promoted to the commander of the Third Army of the Xinjian Army in the 32nd year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu. Cao Kun took a fancy to the Sun Family Garden and bought it from Sun Zhongying with a large sum of money. Since then, "Sun Family Garden" was renamed "Cao Family Garden". After that, Cao Kun relied on his power and used the wealth he had plundered to expand the garden site and built a large number of buildings in the garden. He demolished the old houses and rebuilt them into palace-style buildings, with corridors connecting each building. He also built Western-style double-column gates and curved eaves for his children. The Prince's Building and the Princess' Building were also built. Rockeries were piled up in the garden, an artificial lake was dug, a pavilion in the center of the lake was built, and a swimming pool was built. Stone men, stone horses, stone sheep, and stone lions were placed in front of the door of each building. The garden is lush with trees and flowers, elegant and pleasant, and was the best private garden at that time. During the expansion and renovation of Cao's Garden, many stones came from other garden sites such as Shuixizhuang.