Badaguan

Badaguan (Chinese: 八大关; pinyin: Bā Dà Guān ; lit. 'the eight great passes') is a historical mansion area located near the coastline in the city of Qingdao, Shandong, China.

Huashi Lou

Badaguan street scene

Badaguan is made up of streets named after great military forts of the ancient times. It was originally a residential area for the Germans built when Qingdao was a German protectorate (1897-1914). Each street is lined with a single species of tree and many street names are colloquially known by the trees that line them.[1] Along the streets are houses built in a variety of European architectural styles. Badaguan is bordered on the west by No. 1 Beach and on the east by No. 3 Beach. Badaguan is a popular destination for wedding photography. One can often see dozens of newlywed-couples being photographed along Badaguan's shoreline and greenspace.

Next to Badaguan, on the south end of No. 2 Beach, is a large rocky outcropping on which a stone Russian villa was constructed. Built in 1932, Huashi Lou (花石楼) combines Greek, Gothic, and Gothic influences throughout its five storey hulk. It is constructed from marble and stone and features a large turret and a multicolored outer face which inspired the locals' nickname for the structure, "the colorful rock building".[2] It also contains a passageway which Chiang Kai-shek used to get from the building to the seashore.