At 37 Guangxi Road in Qingdao stands a stone witness. Built in 1906 as the Marquis Courtyard Hotel, this German castle-style building now houses a police station. Its story is written in brick and stone, a chronicle of a changing city.

The structure is a four-story puzzle of asymmetry. A circular turret anchors its southwest corner, its base supported by stout, tapered stone columns. The south facade holds a second-floor terrace, overlooking the street. Inside, a wooden spiral staircase connects floors of terrazzo and hardwood, while a gabled roof, clad in tongue-and-groove tiles, shelters the attic space. The entire edifice rests on a rugged plinth of mushroom stone.

It opened for guests in 1911. By 1922, with Qingdao’s sovereignty returned to China, its purpose shifted. It became the First District Police Station. After 1949, it continued as the Shinan Branch of the Qingdao Public Security Bureau. The same floors that once carried the footsteps of travelers now support the work of keeping peace.

The building’s value is etched in its form. It embodies 19th-century European architectural art, carrying humanistic ideals from the Renaissance forward. The stone walls, over ten meters tall, have absorbed the sounds of a century—from hotel chatter to police business. They stand as a permanent record, a physical archive of Qingdao’s modern journey.