Because of Zhang Yimou's film Red Lanterns Raise High, the scene of which was set in Qiao's Mansion, rich merchants' magnificent residences in central Shanxi Province became famous overnight.
This movie was shot in Qiao Jiabao, a merchant mansion in Qixian County of North China's Shanxi Province. It covers 8,700 square metres of land and consists of six large courtyards and 20 smaller courtyards linking 313 rooms together.
The movie's vivid photography of the spatial organization in this old architecture reflected the battles and relationships of a traditional Chinese family and heightened the movies's theme that in a dictatorial family, just as in the feudal system more widely, survivors were usually those who followed traditional rules rather than those who broke them.
Nowadays, Qiao's Mansion and Qu's Mansion in Qixian County, Cao's Mansion in Taigu County and Wang's Mansion inLingshi County are tourism destinations in Shanxi.
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