For example, more than one hundred powerful political figures of North Sea Warlord cabinets lived in the neighborhood, including presidents, premiers, ministers, generals, governors and mayors. According to statistics, there were more than 300 Western-style buildings in the neighborhood and more than 100 Chinese and foreign celebrities used to live here. For instance, great dramatist Cao Yu grew up in the neighborhood and it is guessed that plots of his works "Sunrise" and "Thunderstorm s" are set in some mansions here.

 Low-profile Appearances of Celebrities' Residences

Exotic mansions in the Five Avenues neighborhood fascinate contemporaries with vicissitudes they experienced. I am particularly fond of celebrities' former residences. They look low-profile, quiet and peaceful, forming a striking contrast with the hurly-burly of metropolis outside the street.

Liang Qichao's former residence	Zhang Xueliang's former residence

Five Avenues is not a historical name for the neighborhood. There was no such a name during the British rule of the cession. This name was given by the local administration in the 1960s only for the convenience. Today, Five Avenues refers to a whole neighborhood including 18 streets.

As nine Western countries established cessions in Tianjin, architectures within the cessions are diverse in styles, from Gothic to Baroque, from Rome to Byzantine, from southern European styles of Middle Ages to eclectic features of the 19th century. Thus, the Five Avenues neighborhood is reputed as "world architecture exposition".

Zhang Garden	Jing Garden

Mansions in the neighborhood attract interest and trigger out imaginations of contemporaries mostly because of reputations and anecdotes of their past owners. For example, the Knot Mansion at the crossroad of Machang Avenue and Hebei Street used to be the residence of Peking Opera master Ma Lianliang. There are also mansions where the last emperor Puyi and last eunuch Xiao De Zhang lived. Whoever they were, political and military dignities or successful entrepreneurs, they tended to keep low profile in the chaotic social background of the early 20th century. Such mentalities were reflected in appearances of their mansions. Buildings in the neighborhood are mostly low rise in adequate sizes, with gardens separating mansions from streets. And mansions are usually hidden in shadows of trees and other plants. For instance, the square-hole fencing walls of Minyuan Mansion can let sunlight come in but persons from outside cannot see inside.

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