Villa for banker
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2004-12-23 09:42

The villa built more than 88 years ago as part of a group of 12 on a large block of land on Huashan Road, belonged to Li Ming, general manager of the then Zhejiang Industrial Bank.

No. 85 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army on Huashan Road doesn't look like it conceals a treasure trove of architectural gems behind its modern facade.

But if one walks into the depths of the hospital, a vista of a dozen period villas emerges.

This was once a famed high-end residential area and when the villas were built more than 80 years ago the whole estate was named"Fan Yuan"(Standard Garden).
Today it seems that the proud days of the villas have gone with the wind—like their former owners—and now they should be described merely as houses rather than garden villas.

There are several century-old camphor laurels and pine trees plus dozens of red flowering shrubs encircling the buildings but the overall appearance is far from that of a garden or a park.

Several small companies and the staff of the hospital share the buildings and their deep-gray walls are somewhat interestingly dotted not only with stone carvings but also with underwear drying in the sun, old shoes, electrical wiring, tiny flower basins and even quilts put out for airing. Flowers lightly scent the atmosphere but this is mixed with the aroma of Chinese steamed rice and fried vegetables. All this gives the former luxury villas a touch of the humor of daily life.

According to Song Luxia, a researcher of old houses who has published several books on the history of Shanghai, the"Fan Yuan"site at 1220 Huashan Road comprises 12 garden villas in British, French and Spanish styles. They were built during the 1910s and were home to nearly 600 residents.

"Some of the older staff of the hospital can remember when there used to be tiny hills, spacious lawns and beautiful gardens here,"says Gao Feng, deputy president of the hospital.

"The owners of the villas lived on the first and second floors while the servants usually lived on the third."

There were also tennis and basketball courts in the center of the estate plus a small stream that zigzagged across its northwest corner.

The names of the former owners are as dazzling as the gardens once were.

The"big names"include Li Ming, general manager of the Zhejiang Industrial Bank; Ye Mingzhai, a powerful comprador and Zhang Youyi, ex-wife of the renowned poet Xu Zhimo, who was also a sister of Zhang Jia'ao, general manager of the Bank of China.
In 1916, the bankers succeeded in boycotting the financial policy that had been laid down by warlord Yuan Shih-kai who lived at the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

During a banquet to celebrate their success, the bankers decided to construct their homes together and they bought the site on Huashan Road and built their villas one by one.

The No. 8 building belonged to Li's family. The house is impressive with its flowing curves reminding one of the plump bellies of powerful generals. Aged wooden window shutters from the old days still remain.

The entrance of Li's former home seems to be a bit of a mess at first glance. But through the patina of dust and dirt one can still see the elegant paving of coffee, cream and black-hued ceramic tiles. The wooden door with its exquisite
carvings looks like it belongs in a fairy tale. The wall is luxuriously lined with carved deep-red timber.

Li was a clever merchant whose bank had many foreign customers. He was famous for his words to Chiang Kai-shek:"Raise chickens first, then get eggs."He was trying to persuade Chiang to stop his endless requests for money from bankers. Li went to the United States in 1948 and never returned to Shanghai.

The No. 10 building next to Li's was the home of comprador, the son-in-law of Xi Jinhua, another powerful comprador.

Unfortunately for Ye, his son Ye Chengming, who had studied in the United States, was not interested in the family business and he became a collector of antiques.

"His antiques filled several houses,"Song says in her book"Shanghai's Old Villas.""One day a servant want to find a stone to press the cover of a jar for pickling vegetables. He couldn't find a clean one so at random he took a quareshaped stone from one of Ye's collections. Another servant who came for the pickled vegetables saw that the stone was a seal of an emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The joke soon spread."

As Shanghai's real estate industry continues to boom, these high-end residences of yesteryear still function as homes for many residents in a forgotten corner of a military hospital. Even knowing something of their history, it's still hard to see the dozen darkgray buildings as being a paradise for bankers or a place where one could use an emperor's seal to make pickled vegetables." Fan Yuan"serves today as just another reminder of time's power to change everything.