In Xichang, in the southwest pocket of China’s Sichuan province, an ancient lakeside house has been carefully restored and opened as boutique hotel General’s Mansion.

Architecture firm Matrix Design oversaw the building’s refurb, stripping back layers to reveal period details such as grass-mud walls, wooden carvings, and paintings. Guests enter the hotel’s time-worn doors via a front courtyard, surrounded by the original wooden column-tie structure of the house – once used as the private residence of a martial general of the Qing dynasty.

The General’s Mansion Xichang hotel is filled with a mix of ancient objects and minimal furniture, with new spaces sunken inside the building’s existing rooms.

New extensions expand the building, with the hotel’s restaurant built from stone that mimics the texture of rammed earth. A former stable has been converted into a teahouse – with views onto the nearby Qionghai Lake.

The Fifth Avenue of Hangtian Rd, Xichang, Sichuan, China

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