BA JIN -- Famous Chinese Writer May 16

Ding Yaping took me on this brief walking trip, walking east from the north end of campus, along Huaihua Lu until we got to Wukang Lu, where the triangle building catches one's eye.   We walked up Wukang Lu a several blocks.   This turned into an amazing street, for although we could see very few buildings, the street was marked by historic notices of houses of historic significance.  And the houses that we could see were magnificent, especially compared with those high rise apartment buildings we are used to seeing.  Here were houses with green lawns.

I found these signs to be like little signposts into the history of the area, so I took these photos even though we could not see the buildings themselves, for the sat behind some very high walls.

A few blocks down, we reach our destination:  the former residence of writer Ba Jin.

                                                                                                                                                                   

Unfortunately as has been the case in most of the famous residences, photos were not allowed inside.
But we were able to see his library and his working areas, both inside the house and in a covered and enclosed back porch, where Ba Jin apparently did quite a bit of work.

Apparently a clipping from a newspaper and the sample of Ba Jin's handwriting.

Here are the back of the house and the gardens.

We saw two sculptures this day; here a very thin character, arms outstretched.   Later, you'll see the other striking sculpture.

And as we walk back, we encounter a few other houses behind gates:

Surprise, there is more than one triangle building on Wukang Lu.

We stopped here at this little restaurant for a snack and coffee.  











And encountered our second sculpture.

A month later, we took a walk into this area and had lunch, and walking down Wukang Lu stopped to look at models of historic houses displayed in the Wukang Tourist Center.














Photos of the houses are below.



So everything on this page is within about a quarter mile of Soon Ching Ling's residence (which I visited last year), and the Shanghai Library, which is maybe a quarter of a mile further on HuaiHua Lu.

We walked out this afternoon for lunch and stopped at the Tourist center and walked instead into a mini chamber concert.   Only in Shanghai.