The century-old building "Wu Peifu Residence" resale: hidden deals and millions of dollars embezzled

Ask AI · How did Ding Mou secretly set up “yin-yang contracts” using his position?

Beijing News Reporter Han Futao Edited by Hu Jie Proofread by Liu Jun

124 Nanjing Road, Jiang’an District, Wuhan is a prominent historical building listed by the Wuhan municipal government as a first-class protected historic site. It is said that the warlord Wu Peifu of the Republic of China period once lived here, so it is known as the “Wu Peifu Residence,” and its other official name is the Wu Family Garden. Over a century, the building has changed hands several times and has now become a popular “internet-famous” boutique guesthouse.

Ten years ago, there was a secret transaction involving this building. In 2016, the then owner—the Catholic Church in Hunan—quietly sold the residence for 17 million yuan at a low price, with the effective price per square meter of only around 10,000 yuan.

Recently, Beijing News reporters learned that the so-called real estate purchase agreement signed at the time was nothing more than a tactic to mislead people. The actual transaction price of the Wu Peifu Residence was 34.3 million yuan; the difference of more than tens of millions was packaged as “transfer fees for calligraphy and painting artworks” and flowed into private pockets.

In this transaction, the buyer was a company that had just been established shortly before signing, while a long-term tenant of the residence, Deng Mou, acted as an intermediary and even as a “white glove.”

The key person who handled everything behind the scenes was Ding Mou, a public official dispatched from the Religious Service Center of Hunan Province to the church. He not only secretly arranged “yin-yang contracts” in the transaction, but also siphoned off additional funds under names such as appraisal fees and consultation fees, ultimately transferring tens of millions of yuan into accounts he controlled.

Around 2023, as disciplinary inspection and supervision personnel joined the investigation, the hidden transaction behind the century-old building gradually came to light. In addition, the disciplinary inspection and supervision personnel also found that Ding Mou had worked together with three other senior leaders of the Catholic Church in Hunan to divide a demolition compensation payment of more than 24.81 million yuan and another church fund totaling 4 million yuan.

On November 14, 2025, the People’s Court of Kaifu District, Changsha City, Hunan Province, issued a judgment at first instance. It held that Ding Mou committed the crime of embezzlement of funds by misusing his official position and sentenced him to eight years’ imprisonment. The other three senior leaders of the Catholic Church in Hunan and intermediary Deng Mou were also sentenced respectively, and the court also ordered several defendants to repay and compensate the victim unit, the Economic Losses of the Hunan Provincial Catholic Church Affairs Committee, totaling 49.73 million yuan.

A century-old building changes hands multiple times

Jiang’an District is the starting point of Wuhan’s modernization. During the Republic of China period, merchants and missionaries from different countries gathered here to do business, set up factories, and run schools, building a large number of foreign-style shops, factories, and historical buildings with an exotic character. The Wu Peifu Residence at 124 Nanjing Road is one of the best-known historic buildings in this area.

On August 12, 2006, the Wuhan People’s Government designated this building under the name “Wu Family Garden” as an excellent historic building. According to the Wuhan Excellent Historic Buildings website, as of now there are 193 excellent historic buildings in Wuhan, including 56 first-class protected buildings, and the Wu Family Garden is one of them. On May 1, 2022, the Jiang’an District Culture and Tourism Bureau, using the name “Wu Peifu Residence,” set up a plaque on the exterior wall of the building marking it as “Jiang’an District Registered Immovable Cultural Relics.”

▲ Exterior view of Wu Peifu Residence. Photo by Beijing News Reporter Han Futao

The Wuhan Excellent Historic Buildings website introduces that the construction time of the building at 124 Nanjing Road is before 1925. It is a Chinese-Western blended architectural style, a three-story mixed structure enclosed by a main building and two annex buildings. The first and second floors of the main building adopt an external corridor layout; the entire exterior wall is divided by horizontal lines, giving the building a steady, solemn, simple, and bright look. At the roof there are two symmetrical Chinese-style pavilions with upturned eaves, which are highly distinctive. The gatehouse has a terrace for resting, and the annex buildings on both sides feature polygonal structures.

“Legend has it that in October 1925, when the warlord Wu Peifu took up the post of commander-in-chief of the anti-bandit coalition army of fourteen provinces in Hankou, he and his wife resided here.” On the Wuhan Excellent Historic Buildings website, the building is described as having origins connected to the Republic of China warlord leader Wu Peifu. Some researchers hold a reservation on this, arguing that there is a lack of direct evidence that Wu Peifu lived here. However, this does not prevent the building from becoming popular under the name Wu Peifu Residence.

On the south side of the building, there is also a two-story Western-style mansion, which is also believed to be related to Wu Peifu; it is said to have been the stationing place of his guards, and it has now been converted into a restaurant.

According to a real estate industry professional who has worked in the field for many years, in Jiang’an District of Wuhan there are many historic buildings from the Republic of China period, most of which are publicly owned. Many of them are still used today as office premises for government agencies and state-owned enterprises. Wu Peifu Residence is one of the historic buildings in the area that has private ownership.

The Wuhan Excellent Historic Buildings website states that after Wu Peifu left, the building changed hands multiple times: “After 1926, the building was bought by an Italian missionary, who transferred it to the Catholic Church in Hunan. After Wuhan’s liberation, it was allocated as housing for old Red Army veterans of the Fourth Front Army. In the late 20th century, the government returned this property to the Catholic Church in Hunan.”

Secret transaction signed with “yin-yang contracts”

To this day, the plaque on the exterior wall of Wu Peifu Residence still introduces the building as church property. But in reality, the building had already been quietly sold to a private company in Wuhan in 2016.

Recently, Beijing News reporters learned exclusively that the secret transaction from ten years ago was full of twists and turns.

▲ Protection plaque for excellent historic buildings and the plaque for registered immovable cultural relics hanging on the exterior wall of the gate of Wu Peifu Residence. Photo by Beijing News Reporter Han Futao

According to relevant legal records, in 2016, as the property rights holder of Wu Peifu Residence, the Catholic Church in Hunan wanted to sell the immovable property.

Ding Mou, dispatched from Changsha, Hunan to Wuhan to handle the sale of the church property, was, before the case, a level-seven cadre managing position at the Religious Service Center of Hunan Province. From June 2003 he had been stationed at the Hunan Provincial Catholic Church Affairs Committee and the Patriotic Catholic Association (collectively referred to as the Hunan Provincial “two Catholic associations”). Later, he also served as deputy secretary-general. Reporters learned that the Religious Service Center of Hunan Province is a unit directly under the Hunan Provincial Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission. As a dispatched personnel, Ding Mou was not a religious clergy; rather, he was a public official of a public institution.

Ding Mou informed Deng Mou, a long-term tenant in the residence who he had known for many years, about the news that the Wu Peifu Residence would be sold, and asked him to help find a buyer. Starting in 2004, Deng Mou had leased the first floor of Wu Peifu Residence to operate a teahouse, claiming that he had previously managed and operated the immovable property on behalf of the property rights holder.

After that, through Deng Mou’s introduction, a company called Wuhan Boyu Cultural Media reached a purchase intention with the property rights holder, agreeing to transact the historic building at a price of 17 million yuan.

According to relevant legal records, at 10:00 a.m. on November 10, 2016, on the first floor of Wu Peifu Residence, Ding Mou and another responsible person representing the property rights holder signed a real estate sale and purchase contract with the Wuhan Boyu company with an amount of 17 million yuan. That same day, the Wuhan Boyu company transferred 10 million yuan to the account of the Hunan Provincial Catholic Church Affairs Committee, and a few months later transferred another 7 million yuan. Based on the total gross floor area of Wu Peifu Residence of more than 1,600 square meters, the transaction unit price per square meter was only around 10,000 yuan.

But this was only a means to mislead people. The actual transaction price of Wu Peifu Residence was not 17 million yuan. According to relevant legal records, on November 10, 2016, the same afternoon as the real estate sale and purchase contract was signed, Deng Mou, under the name of Wuhan Huina De Commercial Management Co., Ltd., signed another “Calligraphy and Painting Art Transfer Agreement” with Wuhan Boyu for 17.5 million yuan. Deng Mou later testified during the investigation that the reason for arranging this transaction was because he was following Ding Mou’s instructions.

Before this, after Ding Mou and Wuhan Boyu had negotiated several times, the initial transaction price agreed for Wu Peifu Residence was actually 35 million yuan. After the total price of 35 million yuan was set, Ding Mou proposed splitting the 35 million yuan total into two contracts: one was the real estate sale contract, and the other was the calligraphy and painting art transfer contract—what people call the “yin-yang contract.”

According to Deng Mou’s recollection, at the beginning, Wuhan Boyu had concerns and insisted that they wanted to buy the property at 124 Nanjing Road, Wu Peifu Residence, and not the calligraphy and painting art. To persuade the other party to cooperate, Ding Mou agreed to a discount of 5 million yuan, and the final total transfer price of Wu Peifu Residence was set at 34.5 million yuan.

Tens of millions of yuan embezzled and taken as private gain

According to relevant legal records, after the account of the Wuhan Huina De company controlled by Deng Mou received the transfer of 17.5 million yuan, Wuhan Boyu believed that the fees they had paid were too high. Ding Mou decided to refund 0.2 million yuan, and in the end they actually received 17.3 million yuan from Wuhan Boyu.

Deng Mou stated that he kept 5.3 million yuan out of the 17.3 million yuan in his own account. As for the remaining 12 million yuan, at Ding Mou’s request, he transferred it to a bank account provided by the other party.

A few months after the real estate sale and purchase contract was signed, Ding Mou again proposed to the Catholic Church in Hunan that disposing of the Wuhan church property would require some additional expenses, including appraisal fees, auction fees, transfer/over-ownership fees, etc. After that, the Hunan Provincial Catholic Church Affairs Committee transferred 2.62 million yuan to Wuhan Baoshang Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. under the name of consultation service fees.

The account of Wuhan Baoshang was also controlled by Deng Mou. Deng Mou claimed that the Baoshang company had no business dealings with the relevant property rights party, nor had it provided any consultation services. After receiving the funds, he, according to Ding Mou’s instructions, handed all 2.62 million yuan to Ding Mou in the form of cash withdrawals and transfers.

Beijing News reporters, after checking business registration information, found that the establishment date of Wuhan Boyu Cultural Media—the buyer company of Wu Peifu Residence—was October 10, 2016, meaning it had been established only one month before the sale and purchase contract was signed. The company had three individual natural-person shareholders: the major shareholder held 80%, and the other two natural-person shareholders each held 10%.

According to relevant legal records, a shareholder of Wuhan Boyu disclosed that after they bought Wu Peifu Residence, they fabricated an auction document, intending to show that the property rights holder auctioned Wu Peifu Residence and that Wuhan Boyu Cultural Media Company obtained it at a price of 8.35 million yuan. This shareholder said that the purpose of this operation was to reduce the deed tax.

During the ten years after Wuhan Boyu bought Wu Peifu Residence, whether it was sold again is currently unknown. However, Beijing News reporters’ investigation found that the registered address of Wuhan Boyu has been changed to Wu Peifu Residence at 124 Nanjing Road.

▲ Interior of the second floor of Wu Peifu Residence, now all guest rooms. Photo by Beijing News Reporter Han Futao

In mid-March 2026, Beijing News reporters conducted an on-site visit and found that Wu Peifu Residence has been converted into a high-end boutique guesthouse, with 12 themed guest rooms with distinctive styles. According to the guesthouse operator, they leased the entire building from the property rights party and moved in for renovation in 2020, and began operating for external guests in 2021. As for details of the property rights party, the other party said it was inconvenient to disclose.

On a certain online booking platform, the guesthouse advertises Wu Peifu’s former residence as its core selling point. The information states that the building area of Wu Peifu Residence is 1,661 square meters, including a 1,360-square-meter three-story villa and a 300-square-meter courtyard and terrace. The guesthouse charges between 400 yuan and 900 yuan per night, with prices rising on holidays. According to the guesthouse operator, if the 12 guest rooms and the courtyard are rented as a whole, the price is 12,000 yuan per day.

On the left side of the gatehouse facing the street, there is a coffee shop that is currently operating. The right side gatehouse is currently vacant, with posted advertising information seeking tenants. According to the guesthouse operator, currently Wu Peifu Residence as a whole is not open to public visits; customers of the coffee shop or outside tourists can only visit the courtyard or the front hall area. Most of the rest of the building is only open to the guesthouse’s lodging guests, although they also undertake commercial shoots or wedding photo shoots, priced at 400 yuan for two hours.

Multiple people sentenced for the crime of embezzlement of funds by misusing their official position

After Wu Peifu Residence was sold for many years, it was only gradually made known to the public when disciplinary inspection and supervision personnel got involved. As the former property rights party, the Catholic Church in Hunan still had insiders who did not know that this church property had already been sold.

On November 14, 2025, the People’s Court of Kaifu District, Changsha City, Hunan Province, issued a first-instance verdict, holding that in the process of transacting Wu Peifu Residence, the defendants Ding Mou and Deng Mou used their official positions to misappropriate funds of 17.3 million yuan.

Reporters learned that Ding Mou not only pocketed private gain in the course of disposing of church property in Wuhan, but a few years later, when disposing of church property in Shanghai, he also carried out illegal operations.

According to the written record of the first-instance judgment, in August 2019, the Yangpu District Housing Security and Housing Management Bureau in Shanghai signed two expropriation compensation agreements with the Catholic Church in Hunan. The decision was to expropriate two pieces of church property in Shanghai. It was agreed that for one non-residential building, compensation would be over 70.67 million yuan, and for another residential building, compensation would be 24.81 million yuan. At that time, Ding Mou was the specific person in charge of handling matters related to the demolition and relocation of church property in Shanghai.

The judgment document shows that after Ding Mou and the other three senior leaders of the church discussed and decided together, they determined to include only the 70.67 million yuan demolition compensation into the church’s financial accounts, while conspiring to privately divide the 24.81 million yuan demolition compensation. After that, they opened new bank accounts to receive the huge amount. After deducting expenditures, each person obtained 5 million yuan. In addition, according to the written record of the first-instance judgment, the four of them also privately divided another church fund; this time each person received 0.5 million yuan.

▲ The street block where Wu Peifu Residence is located, where multiple Republic of China-era historic buildings still exist. Photo by Beijing News Reporter Han Futao

On November 14, 2025, the People’s Court of Kaifu District, Changsha City, Hunan Province, issued a first-instance judgment. It held that the defendant Ding Mou committed the crime of embezzlement of funds by misusing his official position; the amount embezzled was over 48.73 million yuan. He was sentenced to eight years and six months of imprisonment, and fined 300,000 yuan. The other three senior leaders of the Catholic Church in Hunan involved were also found to constitute the crime of embezzlement of funds by misusing their official positions, with the amount involved being 28.81 million yuan. They were also sentenced to imprisonment, including one person sentenced to seven years and the other two sentenced to six years.

At the same time, the court found that Deng Mou, the previous tenant of Wu Peifu Residence, also constituted the crime of embezzlement of funds by misusing his official position, sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, and fined 120,000 yuan; it also found that Deng Mou committed the crime of concealing or disguising proceeds of crime, sentenced to three years and 10 months’ imprisonment, and fined 30,000 yuan. The court decided to combine and execute a total sentence of six years’ imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 yuan.

In the first-instance judgment, the court also ordered several defendants to repay to the victim unit, the Hunan Provincial Catholic Church Affairs Committee, for economic losses totaling 49.73 million yuan in total.

Duty Editor Gu Li Wang Danni