Tu's former home now historic site

The childhood home of Chinese Nobel laureate in medicine Tu Youyou in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, East China, has been listed as a historic landmark.

It forms part of a complex of 37 traditional buildings covering 2,200 square meters that were transformed into a high-end art and commercial zone in 2011.

Tu, 85, lived at the house until she went to university in Beijing in the 1950s.

It now is owned by Ningbo Real Estate Inc Co, the contractor for the transformation project. It was one of over 400 sites designated by Ningbo's government as historic on Dec 8.

The house was built about 100 years ago by Tu's maternal grandfather, Yao Yongbai, who was a member of Ningbo General Chamber of Commerce and a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.

After Tu won the Nobel Prize in October for her discovery of artemisinin, visitors flocked to the Ningbo residence to take pictures.

City Mayor Lu Ziyue, speaking at a meeting where decisions on Ningbo's historic sites were announced, said the city is attempting to retain its character.

Some experts say commercialization is an effective way to help solve a shortage of funding to preserve historic sites.

(China Daily European Weekly 12/18/2015 page29)