Villas of Lushan

Fancy owning a villa in the Lushan 庐山 region of Jiangxi Province in China?

If you live in this region in the late 1800s, the answer is probably yes; if you have enough cash.

In 1895 a European missionary and opportunist businessman, Edward Selby Little, secured the lease of a big parcel of land along the valley of Mount Lushan from the Qing government for a period of 999 years through a combination of bluff, bribery and persuasion. He then divided this huge land parcel into smaller plots of land and sold them to prospectice buyers at a price of 300 yuan per plot. These plots of land were subsequently snapped up by wealthy Westerners who then built villas for residence purposes. Edward Selby Little gave this new place a name Kuling with an implication of "cooling" for the Western settlers. He also built a 12 mile track up the mountain that wound through tea plantations. A British family ran the general store and the Fairy Glen Hotel.
 

There were reasons behind the popularity of this site for building villas among the rich. A great number of Westerners came to the Mt.Lushan area during the period from the reign of Qing Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) to the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1875-1908). There they engaged in business, missionary work, cultural and educational work, scientific research, and the operation of hospitals.  Mt Lushan is an ideal retreat from the heat of summer for the western expatriates based there. The middle and lower portions of the Yangtze river plains get extremely hot in summer and European settlers from Shanghai to Nanjing were literally getting hot under the collar.  Because of its mild summers, the mountain town of Lushan is often referred to as 'Nature's Air Cooler'. Many Westereners used to spend the summer months in the mountains to avoid the heat of nearby cities. This explained why when the plots of land offered by Edward Selby Little were quickly snapped up by the rich for building summer villas. The opportunist busnessman made a huge fortune from the land he leased from the Qing government.     

Splendid architecture of a villa in Kuling

Western style architecture

 The son of a London banker opened the Journey's End Inn on the lower slopes and is reputed to have equipped the rooms with both bibles and volumes of French pornography.

By the 1920s, Lushan was already home to more than 800 villas representing the architectural styles of 20 nations, including the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Sweden. The western-style villas left by Edward Selby Little and his followers used to be Lushan's most precious attractions. 

European Villa

The most famous of the houses built there is Meilu Villa, which in its time was the residence of both Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, the former leader of Kuomintang and later 'founder' of Taiwan.

“Meilu” was constructed in 1903 by a British madame, and later presented by her as a gift, to her friend Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the then central government.

Kuling was handed back to China by the British in 1935 but by then Edward Selby Little had long since departed. 

Inside a church in Kuling

Lushan ( 庐山) situated in the northern part of Jiangxi province in southeastern China, and is one of the most renowned mountains in the country. The oval-shaped mountains are about 25 km long and 10 km wide, and neighbours Jiujiang city and the Yangtze River to the north, Nanchang city to the south, and Poyang Lake to the east. Its highest point is Dahanyang Peak (大汉阳峰), reaching 1,474 metres above sea level, and is one of the hundreds of steep peaks that towers above a sea of clouds that encompass the mountains for almost 200 days out of the year. Mount Lu is known for its grandeur, steepness, and beauty, and is part of Lushan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, and a prominent tourist attraction, especially during the summer months when the weather is cooler.

Lushan

Prior to 1949, Lushan was a frequent training area for the nationalist Kuomintang army. The then President of China, Chiang Kai-Shek often visited Lushan whilst on vacation. It was here that in 1946 the U.S. special diplomatic mission representing the President of the United States led by General George C. Marshall met with Chiang Kai-Shek to discuss the role of post-WWII China. After the communist revolution in China in 1949, it became famous as a favoured meeting place for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.


Town of Kuling

A villa in Kuling



                                                       Video: American Love for Lushan