Residences (故居)

On a happy sunny day, I decided to leave the camera at home and step out with as little barang-barang as possible. I can't be lugging a 3.5kg bag around every friggin day. All I needed would be a tube of lip balm, a credit card and some cash, which could all be zipped up in the inner pockets in the coat.

1930s Shanghai must have been elegant, stately and gorgeous. Those villas that you can still see now in the form of museums, restaurants and bars are beautiful. I wouldn't want to live in any though, not unless I've an army of household staff, a housekeeper and a butler to maintain the estate. I love the architecture of a nostalgic era gone by, and wondered how my grandparents felt when they met along the streets of Shanghai back then.

Strolled by to visit the residences of the 1930s- Zhou Enlai's Residence (周恩来故居) at 73 Sinan Road (思南路73号), Zou Tao Fen Memorial Hall (韬奋纪念馆) at 54, Chongqing Nan Road (重庆南路54号) and the Sun Yat Sen Museum (孙中山故居) at 7 Xiangshang Road (香山路7号).

周公馆（周恩来故居）
I gave the main street of ridiculously bright huge shops (like H & M) a wide berth and hopped into the quiet area within the French Concession to have a look at the three-storey French villa that used to house the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Enlai. There're a number of beds, desks and of course documents on display. Rather officious, I must say, reflective of its incarnation as the Communist Party's Shanghai office in 1946. The information provided is in Chinese only. However, the beauty is in the architecture of the villa and its lush vegetation that is now a sad grey in winter.

韬奋纪念馆
Not that I know much about Zou Tao Fen (邹韬奋). But I had google-on-the-go. A respected journalist, writer, publisher and political commentator, he's considered a patriot and lived in these apartments between 1930 to 1936. Many state leaders paid homage to him through scripts, tablets and autographs in this villa that has been turned into a Memorial Hall. I haven't read any of his articles. But it was quite satisfying to browse through the quiet halls of the museum paying homage to the legacy of this man in times of political turmoil. There's a road named after him, along with bookstores and teahouses.

孙中山故居
Apparently this two-storey Western-style villa was bought by the overseas Chinese for Sun Yat Sen who lived there with his wife Soong Ching Ling from 1918 to 1924. The house has been largely preserved, along with its furniture. It doesn't try to overwhelm you with historical information, but instead, leaves it to visitors to feel and surmise what they will, on the assumption that one has somewhat read up about the history of the founder of the Republic of China and subsequently, the Kuomintang. Traces of the villa's residents are still so obvious today. I left the place feeling like this is authentic, unlike what the Singapore version tries to achieve with tenuous links to the man in our memorial hall.

All in all, a very nice interlude walking around and standing for a couple hours before stuffing the stomach again at Family Li Imperial Cuisine (历家菜餐厅), where the nuances of Chinese food were completely lost on my unappreciative tastebuds.