A stunning view of the Qingdao Huashi Building – a European castle-style building in the Shinan district of Qingdao city [Photo/WeChat account: qdweishinan]

Badaguan is a historical residential area known for its European villas, lying along the coastline of the elegant city of Qingdao, located in East China's Shandong province.

One of its highlights is the Huashi Building – a European castle-style building – which combines a variety of western architectural styles, nestling there amid layers of pines and cypress trees.

The structure also serves as a sanatorium and its healthy natural environment makes it extremely suitable for those who are recuperating. In addition, it boasts high-quality health resources and is helping to develop new growth drivers for the health industry in Qingdao's Shinan district.

It is said that the former owner of the building was Russian emigre M.S. Lembich, who was renowned for his then thriving newspaper business in Shanghai, Tinajin and Harbin.

He moved to Harbin in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province after the Soviet Union's founding and started the Russian-language newspaper Zarya, or Dawn, in 1920.

He then founded the Shanghaiskaya Zarya newspaper in Shanghai in 1925 and the Nasha Zarya in Tianjin in 1928, forming the Far East's largest Russian-language newspaper group.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the building was nationalized.