Tourists in front of Tu Youyou's childhood home in the old town of Ningbo, in East China's Zhejiang province, Oct 7, 2015. [Photo/IC]

The childhood home of Chinese Nobel laureate for medicine Tu Youyou has been listed as a historical site in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.

Tu, 85, lived at the house until she went to a university in Beijing in the 1950s.

It forms part of a complex of 37 traditional buildings covering 2,200 square meters, which were transformed into a high-end art and commercial zone in 2011.

More than 400 sites were designated by the Ningbo government as historical ones on Tuesday, including Tu's former home, which is owned by Ningbo Real Estate Inc Co, the contractor for the transformation project.

The house was built about 100 years ago by Tu's maternal grandfather Yao Yongbai, who was a member of Ningbo General Chamber of Commerce and a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Tu won the Nobel Prize in October for her discovery of artemisinin, a traditional Chinese medicine that can cure malaria. Many visitors flocked to the Ningbo residence during the National Day holiday.

Lu Ziyue, the city's mayor, said at a meeting where the decisions on Ningbo's historical sites were announced that the city is attempting to retain its character, as "buildings everywhere are looking similar".

Some experts said commercialization is an effective way to help solve a shortage of funding to preserve historical sites.