Changyu listed as national industrial heritage

Changyu's Underground Grand Cellar. [Photo/Xinhua]

The cellar was listed on the seventh batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level in 2013.

According to The Past of Changyu published in 1999, the old gate of Changyu was engraved with the company's name "Changyu Pioneer Wine Co" by Weng Tongsu, an official of late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). On the gate is also engraved the company's philosophy "making various fine wine with western techniques". Above its philosophy is written "Fine Selections Wine from Western Style".

The old gate of Changyu. [Photo/Xinhua]

According to the Survey on Yantai published in The Guide Weekly in 1924, Yantai once had a road named Changyu Road, but Changyu Pioneer Wine Co was located at the Dama Road. A researcher at the Changyu Wine Culture Museum said that Changyu invested in the road in front of its gate at its early stages in order to make it more convenient for the delivery of grapes from vineyard to the company. The road was then called "Changyu Road" by local citizens, renamed Zhangyu Road in 1936, later becoming Jiefang Road in 1948 until now.

The stone boundary monuments of Changyu, including monuments for Changyu Wine Store and monuments for Changyu Co, were founded in different periods. The Guide Weekly said that the company was founded by Chang Bishi, who established buildings and cellars of more than 60 mu, and built vineyards covering thousands of mu.

The 1892 Club (former residence of Chang Bishi, Changyu's founder) was located on the east of the original site of Changyu Pioneer Wine Co. A picture book Changyu Wine Culture Museum published by the China Travel and Tourism Press in 2012 said, "the 1892 Club, covering about 900 square meters, is a building of brick and concrete structure and in the western style."