The Beauty of Yuanshan
The Beauty of Yuanshan (the Grand Hotel) ~~ Plum Caisson
Name: Plum Caisson - (Dragon and Phoenix)Name Origin:The “Plum Caisson” on the hall ceiling derives its name from the plum blossom shape envisioned by its designer. |
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Description:
As we first entered the Grand Hotel’s lobby, our eyes were immediately drawn to the plum blossom caisson. As the plum blossom is the national flower of the Republic of China, I privately surmised from the caisson’s exquisite and memorable style that “the designer must have been a patriot.”
Although the special receptionist did not introduce the caisson to us upon our arrival, we had learnt of it prior to our visit. Five shiny golden dragons, representing the “Five Blessings,” surround the dragon pearl, which is set in the heart of the caisson. Our search showed that the caisson’s interior is engraved with twenty-three golden dragons and sixteen phoenixes to fill the caisson to the brim with the auspicious breath of the dragon and the phoenix!
Moreover, the Caisson holds an enticing secret: the number of dragons set at twenty-three is due to the number “three” being homonymous with the word “up,” which refers to a promotion at every step. And the plum blossom symbolizes the homonym of “expansion,” which means the path to success. This little “secret” has brought huge revenues to the Grand Hotel.
Having said so much, we were for a while a little confused–what exactly is “a caisson”? To gain a deeper understanding, we searched online for information on caissons.
We discovered that the caisson has a lot of names, including chi-jing, tian-jing, fang-jing, Fu-hai, Dou-ba, and so on, which rather confused me at first. The caisson is actually a decorative technique of the building top in Chinese architecture. The architect recesses the building top into the shape of a well and decorates the wall side with a pattern of algae to highlight the main space.
Generally, the caisson is formed of layers of brackets, which are constantly contracted from the top to the wide base at the bottom, and most of the outer layers are composed of squares and polygons. The tip is shaped like an inverted funnel on top, which is generally circular and is called the “mirror.” As you can see, the caisson is really not quite simple!
The Significance for the Hotel: We learned that the significance of the caisson for the Grand Hotel means: “Dragon and Phoenix and the Five Blessings.”
