In 1629, builders raised the timber frame of the Li Family Courtyard at No. 64, Shuangshi Section of Xinhua Street. They oriented the square compound to sit east and face west, allowing natural mountain drainage to flow away from the rooms. To secure good fortune, they placed the main gate at the southwest corner, crowning it with sloped roofs of cylindrical tongwa tiles and decorative hanging pillars.

For centuries, this residence welcomed merchants carrying tea and salt along the Southwest Tea Horse Road. The air in the northeast corner once carried the rich, salty scent of a busy soy sauce workshop. Walking through the wooden corridors, one feels the cool touch of lead-clamped joints reinforcing the heavy beams, which rest on smooth, lantern-shaped stone column bases. To the north, cantilevered beams cast deep shadows to shield the rooms from the summer heat. To the south, the building steps back in open terraces, catching every drop of winter sunlight. The six-panel doors of the main hall bear deep wood carvings of botanical motifs, representing the four seasons and "Double Blessings."

In 1918, Li Shengtang, a member of the Yunnan provincial senate, expanded the estate, adding to its grand scale. History shifted again on April 24, 1936, when the Red Second Front Army, commanded by He Long and Ren Bishi, arrived in Lijiang. They turned the courtyard into their cooking headquarters. Cooks slept in the three upper rooms of the main building and prepared meals in the south wing, filling the courtyard with the smell of woodsmoke and boiling rice. Fearing a trap, the soldiers chiseled an arched escape doorway directly through the southern gable wall, creating a path to Lion Hill. Before departing on April 25, a soldier handed a small wooden medicine box to the family patriarch as a quiet gesture of gratitude. The family preserved this relic for three generations before donating it to the Lijiang Museum in 1998.

Today, the defensive watchtower on the east side is gone. The arched escape doorway remains. Visitors standing on the rooftop platform can look out over the tiled roofs of Lijiang Old Town toward the white peaks of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, feeling the quiet weight of three centuries of survival.