In addition, four tablets still hanging in the yard are quite noticeable; they were separately bestowed from Li Hongzhang (a Chinese general who ended several major rebellions, and a leading statesman of the late Qing Empire), the Empress Dowager Cixi (a powerful and charismatic figure who was the de facto ruler of the Qing Dynasty, ruling over China for most of the period from 1861 to her death in 1908), Fu Shan, and villages in Ji County.
In 1990, this ancient mansion gained its fame home and abroad due to the movie Raise the Red Lantern by the directorZhang Yimou.
After the movie finished, the drama production team left behind several hundred redlanterns. Since then, these lanterns have been the most important decoration both in the Qiao Family Grand Courtyard and other jin shang courtyards.
In 1986, the Qi County government rebuilt the courtyard into the Qi County Folk Museum that features art, science, and other things of interest. It contains 42 exhibition rooms displaying a wide range of material covering subject areas such as years, time, season, food, clothing, shelter and transportation, wedding and funeral ceremonies, and agriculture trade activities. In total, approximately 2,000 pieces of exhibits reflect the folktale custom in the Shanxi Jinzhong area.
Qu Family Grand Courtyard
The Qu family was one of the national well-known great merchants during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They had several grand yards and thousands of houses covering an area of more than 30,000 square meters in Qi County.
