The Qiu Residence

Address: No. 412 Weihai Road

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

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