Prince Li's Mansion (礼王府)

Peking · China · Palace

One of Beijing's four great haunted houses: at night Princess Lanxin is said to weep in the palace courtyards, mourning the opera singer her father had killed.

The Prince of Li was one of the Qing dynasty's eight 'iron-cap princes', and his vast mansion at Xihuangchenggen is counted in Beijing folklore among the city's four great ill-fated houses, alongside Chaonei 81, the Huguang Guild Hall and 33 Xiaoshihu Hutong. The haunting rests on a love tragedy: the prince's second daughter, the beautiful Lanxin, fell in love with Feng Yuecong, an opera singer performing at the mansion. For an imperial princess, love for an actor was unthinkable. When the affair was discovered the prince had the singer disposed of, and Lanxin soon followed him into death, consumed by grief. Since then, neighbours and night watchmen have told of faint opera song and the lament of a stringed instrument from the dark courtyards, and of a weeping woman's figure walking the red walls when the moon is high.

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Where is Prince Li's Mansion (礼王府) located?

Prince Li's Mansion (礼王府) is in Peking, China.

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