Bed and breakfast conversion of Chinese courtyard house takes sensitive, ‘simple living’ approach; designing it remotely amid the pandemic ‘a wild experience’
- An interior design and architecture ingénue and her aunt turned an 18th century courtyard house in Hangzhou into a bed and breakfast amid the Covid-19 pandemic
- Despite the hurdles this raised, in the Eight Blessings Inn they’ve managed to create a welcoming space that combines ‘simple living’ with 21st century mod cons
Restoring buildings from bygone eras is no easy undertaking anywhere in the world.
So it is no surprise that, for Hongkongers JoAnn Leung Woon-yan and Niko Leung Hong-ken, turning an 18th century courtyard house in Zhejiang province into a nine-room bed-and-breakfast was a baptism of fire. Neither fully anticipated the ins and outs of being at the helm of such a project in China’s countryside during the pandemic.
Now called the Eight Blessings (Bafu) Inn, the 600 square metre (6,458 square foot) B&B nestled in the ancient village of Shen’ao, Tonglu county, Hangzhou, attracts favourable reviews.
The many online comments about the lodging’s characterful interiors, with warm, contemporary touches, are vindication of the extraordinary effort that led to the guest house’s opening in October 2021.
“Doing this project with Niko was such a wild experience,” says her aunt JoAnn. The elder Leung had worked for property developer Shui On group before and after moving to Shanghai 20 years ago from Hong Kong.
There, in the French Concession, she had also overseen the conversion of an old property into a B&B, which she managed for a year for a friend.
