REVOLUTIONARY SITES

  Several buildings reflect the city's revolutionary history. ln a two--storeyed building at 76 Xingye Lu, the Communist Party of China was founded in 1921; it is proudly shown to visitors as the site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The former residence of the late premier Zhou Enlai is situated at 73 Sinan Lu.

FORMER HOME OF SUN ZHONGSHAN (SUN ZHONGSHAN GU JU)
  This house was owned and lived in by Sun Zhongshan and his wife Song Qing Ling from 1918 to 1924. After Sun's death in 1925, Song Qing Ling continued to stay there periodically until the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937. The house has been decorated with period furnishings, photographs of former occupants and some original household items. The library contains a variety of titles read by Dr Sun such as books on the US constitution and the multinational Habsburg Empire. It is located at 7 Xiang Shan Lu (a cul de sac) at the intersection of Sinan Lu and Xiang Shan Lu near Fuxing Park. In treaty port days the address was 29 Moliere Road.

FORMER HOME OF SONG QING LING (SONG QING LING GU JU)
  When the Sino Japanese War ended in 1945, the Guomindang government gave Song Qing Ling this house to live in. After 1949 the Communist government allowed her to keep it until her death in 1981. Sitting on Huai Hai Zhong Lu, the house is surrounded by a garden estate. The two-storey house is decorated with original furnishings and gifts she received from foreign heads of state during the time she was the honorary President of the People's Republic of China. The automobile from Stalin is parked in the garage.

  A museum is located next to the house and contains English correspondence Song Qing Ling exchanged with world leaders during the period before 1949, a time when she was campaigning for a third way political compromise between the two extremes of the Guomindang on the right and the Communists on the left.

FORMER HOME OF CHIANG KAI SHEK JIANG JIE SHI GU JU)
  JiangJie Shi's former Shanghai residence is located at 9 Dong Ping Lu, and is part of the former Song family walled compound which included a home for each of the members of this most influential and wealthy family of pre- 1949 China. Jiang's house is part of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The home of his brother-in-law, T.V. Song (Song Zi Wen), is nearby on the corner of Hengshan Lu and Dongping Lu. Jiang began staying at this house during his short visits to Shanghai from the Guomindang capital in Nanjing after he married T.V. Song's sister, Song Mei Ling, in 1927. T.V. Song's house has become the fashionable Sasha's Restaurant.

LU XUN MUSEUM (LU XUN BOWUGUAN)
  This museum is dedicated to China's great revolutionary writer, Lu Xun (1881-1936) who spent the last ten years of his life in Shanghai. It is located in the Honkou district inside Lu Xun Park.Lu is buried in Hongkou Park. He lived in a three--storeyed house at 9 Dalu New Village, Shanyin Lu, from 1933 until his death.

MARTYRS' CEMETERY (LONGHUA LEISHI LINGYUAN)
  Also known as Martyrs Cemetery, this site is located on Longhua Lu next to Longhua Si. The museum is dedicated to the Chinese Revolution. In addition to Communist Party members, the museum now honours some Qing-dynasty and Guomindang individuals as national heroes who resisted foreign invasions. Outside the museum are rows of graves of Communist martyrs.
In another corner of the park are the buildings of the l927 Guomindang headquarters used at the end of the Northern Expedition from Guangzhou. Later it became a detention camp for opponents of the Guomindang regime. This is where the famous five Chinese writers were executed in 1931.

GREEN BELTS
  The site where the Communist Party was founded in July 192 at 76 Xingye Lu is now part of a large new development project known as Xintiandi. This project aimed to preserve and restore old Shikumen houses (old Guomindang-era Stone Gate houses) but in reality it has become a shopping centre built in Shikumen style.

  Across Huangpi Nan Lu from Xintiandi, Shikumen were destroyed on New Year's Day 2001 in order to make room for a huge new park, Taiping Qiao, which will include a man-made lake. The area affected covers about six square city blocks between Huangpi Nan Lu, Zizhong Lu and Dongtai Lu and was formerly bisected by Shunchang Lu, Xingye Lu, Jinan Lu and Zhaozhou Lu. More than 3,800 homes were lost as a result of the destruction of this historic residential neighborhood. Gone now are the chamber pots, communal cooking and washing areas, courtyard games of chess (wei qi), the click-clack sound of the Mahjong dice and the music of Heng Lou Meng drifting from windows.

  The development of the green belts has raised the issue of historical preservation. The green belt on Huangpi Nan Lu also threatened the hundred-year-old stone house built by the family of world famous architect I.M. Pei. Although distant relatives of his had continued to occupy the house and the architect had written personal appeals to national leaders, this building, IM Pei House, was due for demolition in 2001.

• Shanghai

• River Rites

• What to See in Shanghai (1)

• What to See in Shanghai (2)

• Shanghai's History Through Its Names

• Cool Depths

• Revolutionary Sites

• Excursions from Shanghai