Morriss Estate

It was a cold and rainy evening in the late 1990s. Sitting in our 90 sq ft hotel room, we were wondering where to go for dinner. The clock has already struck seven, and we were so hungry. We searched all the restaurant directories and guidebooks we had, and one of my companions shouted in excitment, ‘What about Lan Na Thai at Ruijin Guest House? I saw it featured on TV some months ago.’ ‘Fabulous! Call the reception and ask them to get us a cab!’ I responded.

A VW Santana taxi arrived and four of us begin our Formula I taxi ride through the labyrinth of streets and lanes in the former French Concession.

The taxi stopped at the main gate of Ruijin Guest House.

‘Aren’t you going to drive us to the building inside?’ I demanded.

‘No. You’ve got to find your own way in the garden yourselves!’ The driver shouted back.

It was wet and dark, and there were no lights in the big garden. There were muddy pools everywhere: we had to be extra cautious. It took us about twenty minutes before we could arrived to one of the 4 buildings in the compound, and fortunately, Lan Na Thai was inside!

The restaurant was located on the second floor of the building and it was extremely dark inside too. The walls were painted in blue, the dining hall was filled with wooden tables and chairs and Buddha statues were all over the place; all the windows were opened, the white curtains were not properly tied, thus they danced in the air. There were no other diners except us and so the atmosphere was quite ghostly.

All the waiters and waitresses were dressed in black Tang shirts and trousers and wore kung-fu shoes.

I asked one of them who looked sleepy probably due to the dim lighting, ‘Who originally owned this house?’

‘Chiang Kai Shek, the Generalissimo.’

‘He really knows enjoying life.’ I thought… … … … …

I was of course not satisfied with the answer and years later, I came across many other articles about this beautiful compound…. …

A lot of foreigners rushed to Shanghai after it was opened as a treaty port and many of them made a fortune trading opium. Later they invested in real estates and became even richer. Among these people are the Morriss family, which most of the older Shanghainese heard of.

Henry Morriss arrived to Shanghai from Britain with another friend in 1867. He first worked for HSBC, and later won some fortune from horse racing, a game he was so passionate about. He later purchase North China Daily News, the oldest English newspaper in China and became its president.

He also owned lots of lands at the French Concession area like those around Seymour Road (today’s Shanxi Lu) and Avenue Pere Robert (today’s Ruijin No.2 Road), where he later built the Morriss Estate. When he died, a Frenchman called Chollot bought the northern part of the garden in 1928 and built a Canidrome (dog racing track) and a hotel there. Aftger liberation, the dog racing track became the Cultural Square as it is today and the hotel was once a library and then a theatre academy.

The whole garden covers an area of 77000sqm, and the complex comprises 4 elegant villas that are distinctive in style. Constructed in 1917, Villas 1 and 2 were the private garden residence of Mr Morriss and located in the heart of the complex. It’s worth to mention that Madame Soong Mei Ling once stayed here and after liberation, it was used as the office for Shanghai’s first mayor, Mr Chen Yi. Villa 3, built in 1932 was also the residence of Morriss and was taken over by Shanghai Building of Land Bureau when the last Morriss son, a bachelor died in 1952 in the estate.

In 1924, the northeastern part of the garden was sold to Mitsui Trading Co., where they later built an Italian Renaissance style estate in 1936 which is known as Villa 4 today. They built a wall west of the estate to separate themselves, and later the place was named Mitsui Garden. After the Pacific War, the KMT took the estate and the high-ranked officials stayed there. After liberation, officials of the East China Bureau who used to stay at the St. John’s University moved in.

Not long after, the municipal government tore down the walls that separate the estates and the complex became a whole again.

The site was turned to Ruijin Guest House in 1956, accommodating Party Leaders and foreign politicians. The guesthouse was opened to public in 1979, so every one of us have the chance to enjoy ourselves at this unique landmark!

Tags: ,