Yuanmingyuan Apartment used to be a high-end business office building when it was built, and there was a sister building almost identical to Yuanmingyuan Apartment, which was known the "Cathay Insurance Building", located on the Huqiu Rd. The open space between the two buildings was a warehouse then. 

After 1949, the companies and foreign firms that were originally stationed in the Yuanmingyuan apartment were withdrawn one after another, and the Yuanmingyuan apartment became a veritable apartment. Residential clothes were hung in front of the windows and at the entrance of the apartment, while children were chasing each other around. The first residents who lived in the Yuanmingyuan apartment were ones with high social status. The family of Professor Qian Wenzhong, the close disciple of the university student Mr. Ji Xianlin, lived on the third floor of the Yuanmingyuan apartment when he was a child.

Fast forward to 2009, the construction of the outer walls of the Yuanmingyuan Apartment faded: this century-old building lost its former glory. During the repair process in 2009, after the evaluation by various experts, most of the bricks had to be replaced, including many decorative components such as stone pillars in the foyer. Most of the materials used to replace this part were from its sister building "Cathay Insurance Building".

Yuanmingyuan Apartment and Cathay Insurance Building were finally restored to their original style by combining them into one -- the typical British Queen Anne Revival style red brick walls are decorated with exquisite brick carvings; the chic balconies with cut corners and the round stone pillars erase the rigidity of the building's corners; the arched arcs and straight lines collide with a classical charm. The wooden staircase inside the Yuanmingyuan Apartment is decorated with exquisite flower patterns, reflecting the unique magnificence and complexity of the Queen Anne style in the 19th century.

As an "old man" on Yuanmingyuan Road, the once tallest building on Yuanmingyuan Road has long been buried among the surrounding towering buildings, watching countless nights day after day.