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!

Text with kind permission from Katya Knyazeva

Brothers Qiu from a northern province made their fortune overnight in the 1920’s Shanghai. Their eccentric twin mansions with a lush garden full of exotic animals were the talk of the town for years. When the third generation Qiu released his fleet of pigeons the skies would darken.

In 1940’s the brothers escaped the turmoil and disappeared without a trace. The school that came to use the buildings after them demolished (!) one mansion in 1990 to make space for more classrooms. Talk about good education! Now the school moved to the other end of Weihai Lu, its hastily erected classrooms are gone too, and the orphaned exotic mansion will be pushed deeper into the land. I won’t be surprised if ‘moving’ involves disassembling it brick by bricks and replacing whole structures.

Photo Credits: Katya Knyazeva and John Meckley

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.

Built in 1934 by Russian Refugees in memory of the last Tzar. It was later converted to a washing factory and then a beautiful French Restaurant called Ashanti Dome. However the restaurant did not last long; it was closed in 2005 and the building is currently vacant.

This is perhaps my favourite building on Huai Hai Road. Looks a bit like those houses in Paris, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s French Renaissance style……

The metal gate has a passcode, thus I was not able to enter it. It’s quite beautiful in the evening when lights are on. I’ll take another picture soon and wait at the gate next time to see if I can enter the building