Leonard Veysseyre & Kruze
Built in 1933.

Built in 1938. Spence Robinson & Partners.

Located on Fenyang Rd at the site of the former Jewish Hospital, now the Shanghai Eye-Nose Hospital.

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!

Old apartment block built in 1924.

Designed by architects Leonard, Veysseyre & Kruze and located in the French Concession in 1930. Some parts of the building is 7-storey high, while some are 10-storey covering a land area of 5200sqm. It was a property of the French businessmen until the outbreak of the Pacific War when they sold it at a low price of H.H Kung, the then richest man in China.

If you happen to work near Huai Hai Middle Road, then you should visit Nanchang Road, formerly known as Rue Vallon. There you will find a lovely old building sitting quietly, usually haunted except a few elderly who look after it during the day; the old Shanghai Science Hall.

There are only very few sources about this beautiful old facade, and it really took me some time to trace its origins. The whole story dates back in 1904, when the number of French population grew rapidly. The Municipal Council in the former French Concession commissioned a Sports Club for the French community in town. It is a 2-storey building of brick and concrete composite with a large tennis court with a total area of 500sqm. When the club was moved to a new venue, the present Okura Garden Hotel on Maoming Road in 1925, this building was converted into a school known as College Francais, or College Municipal Francais according to some sources. After liberation in 1949, it was assigned for a new mission, and became the headquarters of the Shanghai Science Hall.

I arrived at this haunted hall on a late afternoon and the old guard who was on duty told me I should come another day; he’ll turn on all the lights of the hall and show me its original grandeur……Hope he’ll keep his promise.

Note: I am still searching for the name of the architects who designed this building. The Chinese translation is 万茨 and 博尔舍伦. If you happen to come across their corresponding French names, please contact me. Thank you.

This Art Deco Apartment Building was invested by Wing On in 1933 and designed by 列文*. The 8-storey apartment building was popular among the expatriates at that time, and according to T. Johnston’s A Last Look, the 1939 directory only revealed 1 Chinese tenant!

In the year of 1937, a Soochow businessman invested a piece of land at the intersection of Route Gustare de Boissenzon (the present day Fuxing Xi Lu) and Rue Alfred Magy (the present day Wulumuqi Zhong Lu) and built an apartment building that named after the road, Alfred Magy. At that time, all the people in Shanghai were very impressed at this project — a 10-storey structure on a piece of land with merely an area of 220sqm!

The original layout consisted of a garage that can park 4 cars, and a garbage chute on the ground floor. There are two 2-room apartments on the second floor, while all other floors consisted of just 1 apartment. (According to some Chinese sources, including OLD SHANGHAI APARTMENT BUILDINGS published by Tongji University press), the 9th to 10th floor is a “skip floor apartment” (DC will confirm later)

The good thing about these apartments is that light travels to each corner of the apartment, from bedrooms to living rooms to bathrooms and to kitchens. High quality materials were used for the interior. Heater and hot water and everything essential for daily lives (even by modern’s standards!) were all available. So it’s small, but you get everything. The huge curve of the balconies and streamline design was considered something very modern during those old Shanghai days.

The Alfred Magy Apartments remained to be one of the most classic example in Shanghai. Its clever design has given us a lot of inspiration.

The history of this mansion at 255 Anfu Lu is shrouded in mystery. The four-story castle with tapering tower and Gothic windows sits surrounded with a village of small shacks that barely reach one third of its first floor. Inside the mansion, a spiraling cream-colored staircase runs all the way to the top of the octagonal tower. What used to be a lofty residence for one rich family now has one family in every room, and the flights are used as kitchens. In the early forties, Route Dupleix (now Anfu Lu) was often clogged with automobiles lining up to get to the notorious club and residence of Pan Sanxing, a Shanghai’s nouveau-riche and a collaborator with the Japanese.

Built in 1921, this red “garden residence” as it is referred in the historical databases, was a property of a man called Rosenfeld, and in 1927 became the residence of Soong Tse Ven. It’s converted into an English pub in 1998.

(info from Shanghai Daily Supplement, graciously provided by MRP46)

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