Guangzhou's old-style villas reveal their hidden potential

Fine specimens of Republican-era architecture up for grabs

Laurence Tsui turned an old Guangzhou villa from Republican-era China into a sensational wine lounge called the Mansion. A few blocks away, Stephen Zi refurbished another ageing Republican-era villa into a trendy commercial design and art gallery.

They were among the pioneers and were lucky to get into the refurbishment business of the old villas in the city's Dongshan district a few years ago. Now developers are moving in fast on some 300 villas in the area, mainly fine specimens raised in the heyday of the city as the former capital of Republican China to house the sharp set that lived it up in four and five-storey villas.

Dongshan was a stone's throw from the major seats of power at the time and served as a quaint residential district for lawmakers, tycoons and revolutionaries.

Much like the storeyed watchtower estates that grace Kaiping, these mansions were erected by returning overseas Chinese in the late 19th century and early 20th century. After 1949 most of the original owners left the mainland and some of the villas were used as government offices while new residents moved into others.

By about 2000 a few of the villas began to go on the market but it was not until 2005 that interest began to take off and by the end of 2006 the market value of the villas had surged to an average of three million yuan, according to Colliers International Property in Guangzhou.