This is a building which has seen many changes in its time.

Built in 1922 ,and located at No.19 ,Cambridge Road in the former British Concession ,it was originally the private residence of Zhang Delan (nicknamed Ą°little DezhangĄą), the chief eunuch of the Empress dowager Long Yu .In 1925 Prince Qing Zai Zhen, a fourth generation member of the Imperial family, bought it from Ą°Little DezhangĄą and moved in with his family. Since then it has been known as Ą°Prince QingĄŻs MansionĄą.

Zai Zhen (1876-1948) who was awarded the title of

Zhen-guo-jiang-jun ( State-garrisoning General ) and then the title of Beizi ( the 4th rank of nobility in the Imperial hierarchy ) was the son of Prince Qing Yi Kuang, who was formerly Minister for Foreign Affairs and then Prime Minister at the Imperial Court, and who signed the humiliating Treaty of 1901. In 1902, Zai Zhen was sent to England as a special envoy to congratulate the British King Edward VII on his coronation, and subsequently visited Belgium, France, the United States and Japan by invitation. After he came back from the tour, he wrote the book Ą°Diaris in EnglandĄą. In 1906 he became Minister of the Board of Farming, Public Works and Trade.

Later in the same year he was ordered by the Emperor to go to Jilin for supervision of education, passing through Tianjin on his way. There, a certain Duan Zhigui, who was a candidate for the magistracy of Zhili and also hoped to be appointed provincial governor of Heilongjiang, attempted, though failed, to invest 12,000 taels of silver in buying a singsong girl called Yang Cuixi for Zai Zhen, which caused quite a stir in Beijing. An Imperial Censor named Zhao Qilin wrote a letter to the Emperor impeaching Zai Zhen, who had to resign and never again held any official post. When the Qing Dynasty finally collapsed in the 1911 revolutions, Zai Zhen together with his father Yi Kuang moved to Tianjin to live in seclusion. In 1917 Yi Kuang died, and Zai Zhen inherited the title of Ą°Prince QingĄą .

In Tianjin, he invested in new industrial corporations such as the Quanye Bazaar, the Communications Hotel and Bohai Building among others. He used the income from these investments to support the vast expenditure of his family. He died in his mansion in 1948.

°Little DezhangĄą had designed the building himself and supervised its construction. The mansion is of quite novel design, combining both Chinese and Western styles, and covering an area of 5085 square meters. On the north side a flight of stone steps leads to the lobby, and on each of the other three sides is an ornamental gate giving access to the outer covered passage-way. In the centre of the mansion is a square hall of some 350 square meters, with high windows around the sides illuminating the centre of the hall, where there was formerly a portable stage.

On the ground floor around the hall are the living-rooms, the kitchen and the bedrooms, while on the first floor a balustraded loggia running round the sides connects all the rooms. In the partition wall between the rooms there is a door leading from the first room to the last. On the top floor are 8 rooms built on later by Zai Zhen, which he used for the purpose of sacrificing to his ancestors. Prince Qing had a family of 20 members living on the ground 1st Floors, while over 100 servants lived outside the main building in one-storey houses or basements.

The decorations inside the building are in period style, with a pair of glass pendant lamps in western art-deco style hanging from the high ceiling of the main hall. On the walls are three boards inscribed with the EmperorĄŻs handwriting, with a palace lantern on either side of each board. In the living-room there are plaster sculptures of cranes and bats, with landscapes and flowers painted on the windows. In the middle of the room is a screen and an old-fashioned square table framed in conch shells, while the wooden partition is decorated with delicate wood-carvings.

Outside, the building is of grey brick with exterior western-style balustraded loggias; and both loggias and parapet are decorated with glazed uprights in yellow, green and purple. To the east of the building is a garden with a stone bridge, containing ornamental rocks, including some from Lake Taihu, and a pavilion. There are also some unusual trees from North America, including Northern Catalpa Originally planted as saplings, they are now big trees with luxuriant foliage.

After the founding of New China, the mansion was at first used as the headquarters of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association, and subsequently from 1968 used as the Office for Foreign Affairs by the PeopleĄŻs Government of Tianjin. In 1991 it was designated as a culturally historic building under State protection.

The first Prince Qing, Yong Long Lin, had his mansion in Beijing, Xicheng District, at No.3, Dingfu Street, where Yi Kuang also lived before he moved to Tianjin. In1984 this mansion too was designated by the Beijing Municipal Government as a culturally historic building under State protection.