Introduction to Featured Scenic Spots in Xitang

It stands on the south bank of Shaohong River. The Ni clan was a distinguished scholarly family in the ancient town. The mansion originally consists of five successive courtyards, with a covered corridor shed in the front and a private garden at the rear. Its main hall is named Chengqing Hall (Hall of Inherited Blessings).

Xitang boasts profound cultural heritage and abundant integrity cultural resources. Leveraging these assets, the town integrates the promotion of fine integrity culture with the fine anti-corruption traditions of the Communist Party of China to build an integrity cultural education base.

After sorting out and enriching educational exhibits on integrity governance, the fully renovated Ancestral Residence of Ni Tianzeng, together with nine other venues including Yu Qian Memorial Temple in Hangzhou, Qingfeng Garden in Ningbo and South Lake Revolutionary Memorial Hall in Jiaxing, was designated as one of Zhejiang Province’s first batch of Integrity Cultural Education Bases. It serves as a venue for Party members and cadres to receive education on clean governance, as well as a place for ordinary tourists to cultivate noble sentiments.

West Garden was once a private villa owned by the Zhu family in the Ming Dynasty, a typical mansion of wealthy Jiangnan gentry. Fitted with pavilions, terraces, rockeries and fish ponds, it was renowned as the most picturesque spot in the town back then.

The original site of West Garden lay within Jijia Lane on West Street. Built as a secondary villa for the Zhu clan in the Ming Dynasty, it was later sold to the Sun family. The garden was adorned with flourishing trees, blooming flowers, elaborate rockeries, pavilions and ponds, forming an exquisite landscape. On the rockery to the east sits a teahouse called Listening-to-Waves Studio, named after a several-zhang-tall white-bark pine growing there. When wind blows, the pine needles rustle like rolling waves.

In the winter of 1920, the poet Liu Yazi stayed in West Garden. He took a group photo with fellow members of the Southern Society and titled the picture The Second Version of Elegant Gathering in West Garden.

In March 1990, a new park covering a total area of 16.6 mu was constructed in the western part of the town. Named West Garden in memory of Liu Yazi’s visit, it features a small stone bridge over flowing water and a gate flanked by stone lions at the entrance. Inside, visitors will find brick-lattice covered verandas winding around the garden, waterside pavilions, zigzag stone bridges, rockeries, gazebos and an artificial waterfall.