Built in the 11th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1885) and renovated in 1924 through the joint effort of three generations of Liu Yong, one of the four richest families at the time, Jiayetang is the largest private library with the largest collection of books in the history of China. In its heyday, the library had a collection of 180,000 volumes and 570,000 scrolls. All were finely bound and rare editions. The architectural style of the library and the villa is a beautiful combination of western and traditional Chinese elements.