Former Tongyi Cotton Factory in Hangzhou, Cultural heritage site in Hangzhou, China.
The Former Tongyi Cotton Factory stands on the west bank of the Grand Canal at the west end of Gongchen Bridge in Hangzhou's Qiaoxi historic district. Four brick-and-timber buildings survive: three single-storey weaving sheds (nos. 1, 2 and 3) and a two-storey office with a hip roof. The sheds have sawtooth roofs of single-slope triangular timber trusses, each braced by three diagonal tension rods on square wooden columns 10 cm in diameter, with joints fixed by bowl-shaped metal sleeves and bolts. The east and west sheds now house the China Fan Museum's living craft workshop.
The mill was planned in 1889 by Nanxun merchant Pang Yuanji with Hangzhou merchants Ding Bing and Wang Zhenyuan, built from 1896 and completed the following year. Poor management closed it in 1902; in August 1903 Li Jingfang, son of Li Hongzhang, backed investor Gao Yicheng in reorganising it as the Tongyi Cotton Mill New Company. Renamed Hangzhou First Cotton Mill in 1956, it became Hangzhou Yimian Co. in September 2000 under the Hong Kong Cheung's Group.
The east and west factory buildings now house the Chinese Fan Museum's handicraft living exhibition hall. The name Tongyi Gong comes from the Tongyi Public Cotton Mill founded in 1889 by Pang Yuanji, Ding Bing and Wang Zhenyuan; after 1956 it became Hangzhou First Cotton Mill.
The site stands on the west bank of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal at the west end of Gongchen Bridge, in the Qiaoxi historic district of Gongshu District. The east and west factory halls, now the China Fan Museum's living craft workshop, sit in a line about 20 metres from the north hall and the office building. The two-storey office building faces east.
The east and west factory buildings now house the Chinese Fan Museum's living handicraft exhibition hall. The office building, two storeys high with a hip roof, has horizontal mouldings between floors and a diamond-tooth band under the upper eaves.
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