Badaguan Scenic Area (八大觀景區) is located east of Qingdao railroad station / south of Qingdao Zhongshan Park (青島中山公園). It is about 4.8 km (3 mi) by car from the railroad station. This historical mansion area is situated near the coastline of Qingdao. The name Badaguan came from the original 8 streets inside the area which are Zijingguan Road (紫荊關路), Ningwuguan Road (寧武關路), Shaoguan Road (韶關路), Jiayuguan Road (嘉峪關路), Hanguguan Road (函谷關路), Zhengyangguan Road (正陽關路), Linhuaiguan Road (臨淮關路), and Juyongguan Road (居庸關路) . Today it has two later added roads: Shanhaiguan Road (山海關路) and Wushengguan Road (武勝關路). All the roads are named after great military forts of the ancient Great Wall.
We took the No. 3 subway to the Zhongshan Park station and walked for less than 10 minutes to the beginning of Ningwuguan Road (甯武關路). We were now in the Badaguan area. We walked on the sidewalk with the foreign style mansions along the road. It is a quite unique place to have houses with the different styles of Germany, US, UK, France, Russia, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Greece, Switzerland, etc. Some of the buildings were converted to nursing homes, hotels, restaurants and vacation houses. Each house has its own yard and garden with a fence. Public gardens and rest areas were covered by trees, flowers and grasses. There are some houses open to public, and we visited the navy blue color Princess House (公主樓) first. It is a three story Danish rural villa which was a gift for a princess by the prince. Its garden has some large music instrument artworks and fairy tale figures from the storybooks we read when we were children. You can see the layout of original setting inside the building. Our 2nd visit was the newly opened (2017) Spanish Villa (西班牙風情館) on the opposite side of Princess House. It is a total different environment; we saw pirates, bullfighting and some music instruments inside the villa. Next is the key and most well-known building in Badaguan – the Huashi House (花石樓) which is at the south end of Badaguan overlooking the ocean. This five-story building looks more like a castle than a house and used only natural granite to sculpt the entire exterior walls. This house is famous not only because of its unique outlook but also because of famous residents who have stayed here. Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石, the President of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975) and two famous Chinese communist high-ranking officials - Chen Yi (陳義) and Dong Biwu (董必武) - have stayed here for a short time. The last popular building we visited was the Butterfly House (蝴蝶樓) - a Qingdao Film Museum. The name of the location came from the actress of movie "Peach Blossoms after the Robbery" (劫後桃花) which was filmed here in 1935. Inside we saw some ancient filming equipment, pictures of the actor / actress and the films shot in Qingdao.
The most popular activity in Badaguan is wedding photography; we saw at least a dozen of couples along the roads and near the ocean even though it was a foggy and occasional raining day. We also went to the No. 2 City Beach nearby and enjoyed the wind and the open seas beside those beautiful buildings, roads, trees and flowers. You need to walk a lot, so wearing comfortable shoes is essential. Water and a hat are recommended.
We took the No. 3 subway to the Zhongshan Park station and walked for less than 10 minutes to the beginning of Ningwuguan Road (甯武關路). We were now in the Badaguan area. We walked on the sidewalk with the foreign style mansions along the road. It is a quite unique place to have houses with the different styles of Germany, US, UK, France, Russia, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Greece, Switzerland, etc. Some of the buildings were converted to nursing homes, hotels, restaurants and vacation houses. Each house has its own yard and garden with a fence. Public gardens and rest areas were covered by trees, flowers and grasses. There are some houses open to public, and we visited the navy blue color Princess House (公主樓) first. It is a three story Danish rural villa which was a gift for a princess by the prince. Its garden has some large music instrument artworks and fairy tale figures from the storybooks we read when we were children. You can see the layout of original setting inside the building. Our 2nd visit was the newly opened (2017) Spanish Villa (西班牙風情館) on the opposite side of Princess House. It is a total different environment; we saw pirates, bullfighting and some music instruments inside the villa. Next is the key and most well-known building in Badaguan – the Huashi House (花石樓) which is at the south end of Badaguan overlooking the ocean. This five-story building looks more like a castle than a house and used only natural granite to sculpt the entire exterior walls. This house is famous not only because of its unique outlook but also because of famous residents who have stayed here. Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石, the President of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975) and two famous Chinese communist high-ranking officials - Chen Yi (陳義) and Dong Biwu (董必武) - have stayed here for a short time. The last popular building we visited was the Butterfly House (蝴蝶樓) - a Qingdao Film Museum. The name of the location came from the actress of movie "Peach Blossoms after the Robbery" (劫後桃花) which was filmed here in 1935. Inside we saw some ancient filming equipment, pictures of the actor / actress and the films shot in Qingdao.
The most popular activity in Badaguan is wedding photography; we saw at least a dozen of couples along the roads and near the ocean even though it was a foggy and occasional raining day. We also went to the No. 2 City Beach nearby and enjoyed the wind and the open seas beside those beautiful buildings, roads, trees and flowers. You need to walk a lot, so wearing comfortable shoes is essential. Water and a hat are recommended.
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James Huang - All rights reserved.
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