Caojia Garden

Caojia Garden

Caojia garden, located in Wuma Road, Hebei District, Tianjin, was originally Sunjia garden. In the late Qing Dynasty, it was built by sun Zhongying, a comprador and arms merchant. It is now the site of the 254 Hospital of the people's Liberation Army.

Sun Zhongying, a native of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, first worked in a bank in Shanghai. In 1890, he came to Tianjin to do business. He became a comprador in a foreign company. He got to know Li Hongzhang and then ran the arms business. He made a lot of profits. Guangxu 29 years (1903) is the development period of Hebei new area, he bought land in Hebei, from Yuanwei road in the west, Zhouwei road in the East, Qiwu road in the south, and Xinkaihe River in the north, covering an area of more than 200 mu, building houses and private gardens. The garden is full of flowers and trees, pavilions, streams circulation, also quite elegant, so it is called Sunjia garden. In 1906, in order to make friends with the new rich, he sold the garden privately to Cao Kun.

Cao Kun, Zhongshan, born in Tianjin, sold cloth in his early years. In 1882, he joined the new army and was sent to Tianjin

Further study in military preparation school. After the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895, he attached himself to Yuan Shikai and was promoted to the third army of the new army in the 32nd year of Guangxu. Cao Kun took a fancy to sun's garden, so he bought it from sun Zhongying with a lot of money. From then on, sun's garden was renamed Cao's garden. After that, Cao Kun, relying on his power and wealth, expanded the garden site, and built a large-scale construction project in the garden. He demolished the old houses and rebuilt them into palace style buildings. Each building was connected with a corridor. He also built a Western-style double column gate, a prince's building with curved eaves and a prince's main building for his children. He also built rockeries, dug artificial lakes, built a pavilion in the center of the lake, and built a swimming pool in the garden Stone man, stone horse, stone sheep and stone lion are in front of each building. With luxuriant trees and beautiful flowers, the garden was the crown of private gardens for a time. During the expansion and renovation of caojia garden, many stone materials came from shuixizhuang and other garden sites.

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Caojia garden, located in Wuma Road, Hebei District, Tianjin, was originally Sunjia garden. In the late Qing Dynasty, it was built by sun Zhongying, a comprador and arms merchant. It is now the site of the 254 Hospital of the people's Liberation Army.

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Sun Zhongying, a native of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, first worked in a bank in Shanghai. In 1890, he came to Tianjin to do business. He became a comprador in a foreign company. He got to know Li Hongzhang and then ran the arms business. He made a lot of profits. Guangxu 29 years (1903) is the development period of Hebei new area, he bought land in Hebei, from Yuanwei road in the west, Zhouwei road in the East, Qiwu road in the south, and Xinkaihe River in the north, covering an area of more than 200 mu, building houses and private gardens. The garden is full of flowers and trees, pavilions, streams circulation, also quite elegant, so it is called Sunjia garden. In 1906, in order to make friends with the new rich, he sold the garden privately to Cao Kun.

Cao Kun, Zhongshan, born in Tianjin, sold cloth in his early years. In 1882, he joined the new army and was sent to Tianjin military academy for further study. After the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895, he attached himself to Yuan Shikai and was promoted to the third army of the new army in the 32nd year of Guangxu. Cao Kun took a fancy to sun's garden, so he bought it from sun Zhongying with a lot of money. From then on, sun's garden was renamed Cao's garden. After that, Cao Kun, relying on his power and wealth, expanded the garden site, and built a large-scale construction project in the garden. He demolished the old houses and rebuilt them into palace style buildings. Each building was connected with a corridor. He also built a Western-style double column gate, a prince's building with curved eaves and a prince's main building for his children. He also built rockeries, dug artificial lakes, built a pavilion in the center of the lake, and built a swimming pool in the garden Stone man, stone horse, stone sheep and stone lion are in front of each building. With luxuriant trees and beautiful flowers, the garden was the crown of private gardens for a time. During the expansion and renovation of caojia garden, many stone materials came from shuixizhuang and other garden sites

"Wang wengru recalled that Cao Kun, a warlord, instructed his younger brother Cao Rui to demolish Taihu stone in shuixizhuang, a famous historical garden in Tianjin, in the middle of the night, and ship it from the south canal to Xinkai River through the Sancha estuary to caojia garden." The stone carving with the word "Yunyuan" once stood in the garden. It is said that it is a relic of Liushu palace in Qing Dynasty, which was destroyed during the Anti Japanese war.

From the end of 1917 to the beginning of 1918, Cao Kun held many military meetings here during his tenure as the leader of the Tianjin conference supervision regiment. In 1923, after Cao Kun bribed to elect president, he once lived in the garden and received countless birthday gifts. However, only one year later, Cao Kun was driven out of power and put under house arrest at Yanqing building in Zhongnanhai, Beijing. Later, he took the opportunity to flee south. After that, the garden was sometimes used by his in laws, Zhang zuolin, in addition to his family. At the end of 1924, when Sun Yat Sen came to Tianjin for the third time at the invitation of Feng Yuxiang, Duan Qirui and Zhang zuolin, he held talks with Zhang zuolin in the garden to discuss the country.

Cao Kun began to return to Tianjin in 1927 to work as an allegory. For their own safety, they paid attention to the concession and the British concession in 1935 and built houses. After moving out in 1936, they sold the caojia garden to the administrative committee of Ji (Hebei Province) cha (Chahar Province, which is now merged into Hebei and Shanxi provinces) presided over by song Zheyuan. Later, they renovated and expanded the "Tianjin first park", adding theater, yacht, second library and children's activities Amusement park, open swimming pool, set up a catering department, etc. for a time, there were a lot of tourists. After the July 7th incident of 1937, Tianjin was occupied by the Japanese invaders, the park was changed into a rear hospital of the Japanese invading army. After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, the military and Political Department of the Kuomintang still used the equipment of the Japanese rear hospitals as army hospitals. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, it was changed into the people's Liberation Army 254 hospital. So far, some of the building facilities in the hospital have been demolished and rebuilt into new buildings, but the old appearance of the garden is still visible.

Address: Wuma Road (near 254 Hospital of PLA)

Longitude: 117.196900002

Latitude: 39.163599999952

Chinese PinYin : Cao Jia Hua Yuan