China Fan Museum
Fan collection housed in the iron-trussed sheds of a once-bankrupt nineteenth-century cotton mill.
This guide to the China Fan Museum in Hangzhou starts under the iron roof trusses of what was once a mechanized cotton mill, built in 1889 by merchants from Nanxun and Hangzhou betting on steam-driven looms. It follows the mill through its first bankruptcy in 1902, its rescue by Li Jingfang, son of statesman Li Hongzhang, and decades spinning cotton and weaving towels before a second collapse in 1999 shut the looms for good. Inside the surviving brick sheds you'll meet the Wangxingji workshop's black lacquered fans, made waterproof enough to sell on the street beside umbrellas. Look up at the iron columns built to carry spinning machines, not glass display cases.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.