Porcelain House in Tianjin

Porcelain House in Tianjin

Attractions Overview

It is a building unique in the world. Its predecessor is a century-old French building, and its life is the most luxurious "porcelain beauty building".

Chinese Name: 瓷房子
English Name: Porcelain House
Type: Tianjin Scenic Area, Tianjin famous spots & Artificial attractions
Best Time: All Year Around
Recommended Visiting Hours: 2-3 hours
Opening Hours:09:00-18:00
Location:Located at 72 Chifeng Road, Heping District, Tianjin

Why is Porcelain House So Special?

Standing in front of the house, tourists will be surprised by the colored porcelain glued to the wall. Windows, doors, pillars, eaves and roofs are elaborately decorated with different porcelain. In addition, tourists will find beautiful porcelain decorations on the handrails, ceilings and walls of the house. This house is so unusual that there is no equivalent in the world.

Where is Porcelain House

Porcelain Museum (Porcelain Museum) is located in Chifeng Road, Heping District, Tianjin. It is a French building decorated with porcelain.

History of Porcelain House

The porcelain museum was built in the 1920s with a total area of 5000 square yards (4200 square meters). The building adopts eclectic architectural principles and is generally French-style, but with Italian-style corridors. Huang Rongliang, a contemporary Chinese diplomat, lives here.

In September 2002, businessman, artist and collector Zhang Lianzhi bought the ancient building for 30 million CNY. He decided to transform it into a porcelain building to spread porcelain culture.

On September 3, 2007, the house was opened to the public. Since then, it has become a landmark of Tianjin. On September 23, 2010, together with the Louvre in Paris, France and the Denver Art Museum in Colorado, USA, it was listed by Huffington Post as one of the 15 museums with unique designs.

Owner of Porcelain House

Zhang Lianzhi, a 50-year-old collector of Tianjin porcelain, is a successful businessman who is interested in Chinese art and culture. He has a profitable Cantonese restaurant chain. It took him more than 20 years to collect materials and 5 years to complete the decoration of an old house containing hundreds of millions of ancient porcelain fragments and tons of rock crystal. Reportedly, the entire renovation cost Zhang Lianzhi about 2 billion yuan (315 million US dollars). About 80% of the porcelain used to cover the house came from broken or damaged antiques, but this eccentric collector mixed different pieces together and pasted them on the wall to hide the damaged parts. In fact, most of them look intact. Zhang Lianzhi ensures that elements of Chinese culture can be seen in every corner of his porcelain museum.

Main Attractions of Porcelain House

Around the roof of the building is a huge dragon decorated with porcelain, 840 yards long (768 meters) and 0.87 yards wide (0.8 meters). Even the drain pipes outside the house are decorated with crystal and cat-shaped porcelain pillows.

Inside the building, ceilings and handrails are also decorated with porcelain. The house contains hundreds of precious Ming and Qing furniture and more than 200 paintings and calligraphy at home and abroad, including masterpieces by Chinese masters Zhang Xuan, qi Baishi, Xu beihong and foreign masters van Gogh and Picasso. All the precious treasures and porcelain have made this house immeasurable and brilliant.

In addition, the house skillfully combines traditional elements with Chinese culture. The outside of the wall is decorated with vases. They are called “the wall of peace”. Because “vase” sounds like “peace” in China, designers use vases to pray for peace and security. Similarly, white marble sculptures and rock images are often used to symbolize good luck and opportunity. Finally, the lifelike dragons and phoenixes on the eaves symbolize auspiciousness and prosperity.

The courtyard wall is covered with about 3,000 porcelain vases and is called the “peace wall”. The so-called health wall in the porcelain hall is decorated with more than 600 ancient Chinese porcelain vases. There is a pair of stone lions of Ming Dynasty outside the door. They are nearly 1 meter high and need delicate manual operation. Perhaps the most impressive is the four “Chinese dragons” wrapped around the outer wall of the house, which symbolize the strength of ancient China and are one of the most important features of Chinese architecture. Each dragon is more than 200 meters long and is made of thousands of pieces of porcelain. The outside of the house is covered with porcelain, which sparkles in the sun and attracts the attention of passers-by, while inside, porcelain is only used to decorate a part of doors, railings and ceilings.

Best Time to Travel Water Park

The best time to pay a visit is in June to September.

The main climatic characteristics are clear seasons, windy spring, drought and less rain. The summer is hot and the rain is concentrated. In autumn, the air is cool and the temperature is moderate. Winter is cold and dry with less snow. Therefore, late spring, early summer and autumn are the best seasons to visit Tianjin.

How to Get There

By Metro:
Take metro line 3, get off at Heping Road Station, leave from Exit B, and walk southwest.
By Bus:

1. Take bus line 9, 37, 91, 92, 93, 185, 611, 629, 826, 827, 828, 830, 831, 837, 838, or 851, get off at the Central Park Station, and walk westward.

2. Take bus line 1, 4, 9, 35, 50, 611, 619, 650, 693, 808, 831, 838, 845, 851, 860, 901, 902, 904, 951, 962 or sightseeing bus no. 393, get off at Shandong Road Station, and walk northeast.