Writes of Passage

3 Baoqing Road 宝庆路3号
Shanghai, China

According to the post, this is one of ten old luxury houses in Shanghai 榜上有名的豪宅约有十幢, and there are 3,000 (short for yangfang 独立花园洋房.) The following photos are taken by Hu Ping.

It’s the Shanghai Symphony Museum now 上海交响音乐博物馆. Aunt Jennie started her career at Shanghai Symphony, spending four years there (1956-60) before moving to the Central Philharmonic 中央乐团 (CNSO since 1996). The exhibits in the museum are from the Symphony and Shanghai Conservatory of Music 藏品主要来自上海交响乐团和上海音乐学院. The restoration of the property was rather decent, except the fire place.

It became a tiny island off Guangzhou in 1859 during the second opium war, when Brits and French dug a river, separating it from the Guangzhou main land. It’s now 900 meters from EW, mere 300m NS direction. It was also known as Shameen or Shamin. Shamian means “sandy surface”.

^{wiki, circa 1920}

The English Bridge is seen at the top, NS directional (having 3/5 portion of the Island) and the French Bridge is to the right, NE directional, where the French Concession was, about 2/5 of the Island.

On the Island now, there are:

• Victory (Victoria) Hotel
• White Swan Hotel
• .

Some old photos are mostly from LOC,

• wiki
• hated foreigners

more

• Looking toward the Shamian from the Custom House
• Western part of the Island

• The “floating” population on Shamian Canal, from English Bridge
• The Shameen Canal from the French Bridge
• Looking west on the Central Promenade
• Looking across the Shamian Canal
• The Shamian Canal
• West from the English Bridge

Little Pangu Garden.

Liudun, 刘墩村, 元和堂
Hefei, Anhui, China

The architectural concept, blueprint and the actual photo of the Liu Temple.

They’ve celebration on Oct 4, 2019.

Is the stage too high

China

The quality of western wine in China is visibly better this time. But the labels are still being wrapped …

Tangshan Chile Kenos from Central Valley: Chardonnay (2016; 4.0) and Tempranillo (2017; 3.6). Both have ratings (based on all vintages ) on vivino but no price, whichever that means.

Chengdu

Chongqing – didn’t try. Mondavi Private Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 is $6.99.

It seems that I haven’t been to Beijing airport for a while: you go through security check first: they’re right up front, in your face. Since I’ve a few pieces, a young man mentioned to me to just go ahead. When I hesitate, he became rather unpleasant. Oh well.

Once inside, I immediately saw the vantage point of Forbidden City, which I just went two night before.

What interesting, I ran into the same flight attendant on my Pei-Sea, who was on my JFK-Sea too. Oh well.

Hanhe Rd, Haidian District 万安公墓
Beijing, China

The Cemetery has a subway (Metro) station across the street. The parking is small and fee based by someone other than the cemetery.

Dongmalu (East Road), Nankai
天津市南开区东马路
Tianjin

^{A woman dances to the music alone. More dancers nearby.}

Tianjin Official Bank was created at the beginning of the twentieth century by Zhou Xuexi, to compete with the foreign financial institutions. It was located at northeast corner of the old town (zh wiki: 北马路东端南侧三义庙处), and opened for business in 1902, changed name to Zhili Bank 直隶省银行 in 1913; closed in 1928 and the building was ruined. After 1949, Bank of China used its site. In 2004, the current replica was built next to TJ Ancient Cultural Street (古文化街) on Huanghe Road, in Nankai district. There are many traffic police stations in the city.

It doesn’t seem to have an exact address but is in the corner of Dongmalu (East Road) and Beimalu (North Road). The original location of the Bank is the corner across street – the corner of Tianlong Building天隆大厦那个角. My next stop was the General Mint.

^{The following is from iFeng.com on 2011.1.02:}

作为历史区片地名的

After the Mint, we went eastward on the Shuichan Front Street 水产前街 and stopped at the junction of Huaxin St, which is named after Zhou Xuexi’s Huaxin Textile Factory in the area. 

• Huaxin Park in Tangshan

A few minutes walk up north is 宁园 Ningyuan Park (also called Beining Park 北宁公园). The site of the park was the former Plantation of the late Qing Dynasty which was established by Zhou Xuexi in 1906.  

21 Changde Dao
Tianjin, China

We jumped from Zhou Xuexi’s former residence to my former residence – well, I called it home for a couple of years, after the lunch. It’s a short walk, southwest 900 meters away.

… Chongqing Dao and the neighborhood of Five Great Avenues 天津五大道…