In 1919, two brothers, Ding Xiguan and Ding Zhaoguan, built a residence at No. 61 Nanzheng Street in Shiping County. Ding Zhaoguan was a man of sharp intellect. In 1903, he passed the final imperial provincial examination of the Qing Dynasty. A year later, his bold, reformist essays offended the imperial examiners, prompting his departure for Japan to study political economy at Waseda University. He returned to Yunnan to serve as Civil Affairs Commissioner and eventually helped coordinate the peaceful liberation of Yunnan in 1949.

His home reflects this intellectual journey. The south-facing compound covers 1213 square meters of ground. Built with a post-and-lintel and tie-beam timber frame, the structure is a three-entry quadrangle. The layout merges two distinct architectural styles. The east yard features a double-eaved, two-story building with one bright room and four dark rooms. These dark rooms have large windows that catch the sharp southern Yunnan sunlight. The west yard contains a single-eaved stilt house with one bright room and two dark rooms.

Human presence remains etched into the physical fabric of the house. Carpenters carved elaborate patterns into the under-eave architraves and decorative brackets, leaving smooth, hand-polished surfaces that still smell of aged pine. Rainwater still drains through the narrow leak-angle courtyards and clipping ears spaces, making a soft, rhythmic dripping sound against the green stone floor. After 1949, the building served as a local Party School and later the Shiping County Education Bureau. The daily footsteps of teachers and administrators polished the wooden floorboards, keeping the timber frames structurally sound.

In 2019, the Yunnan Provincial Government designated the residence as a protected cultural heritage site. Today, it stands quietly near the historic Yuntai Gate, its closed doors preserving a century of political transition and architectural craft.