Wang Boxiong’s Residence

Wang Boxiong’s Residence

Wang Boxiong’s Residence is a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai Municipality.

Wang Boxiong’s Residence is located at No. 31, Lane 1136, Yuyuan Road. It is a building in the British Victorian Gothic style. The former residence has a total of 32 rooms of various sizes. The corridors inside the building are winding and interconnected across floors. Both the living rooms and guest halls are decorated with traditional Oriental art, featuring colorful murals on the walls, and even the door and window handles are all custom-made from bronze. The windows are adorned with openwork plum blossom railings, and the hipped roof features romantic dormer windows on the front, exuding lyricism. The semicircular balcony is complemented by Roman-style railings, making the structure magnificent and elegant. The main entrance faces north, and the surrounding wall is decorated in harmony with the exterior façade of the main building.

No. 31, Lane 1136, Yuyuan Road, was originally built in 1930 by Wang Boxiong, Minister of Communications of the Kuomintang government, for his second wife — Bao Zhining, the “campus belle” of Great China University. It was designed by Liu Shiying of the architectural firm Xielong Foreign Firm and constructed by Xin Fengji Construction Company. Completed in 1934, the main building covers an area of 2,158.8 square meters. The architecture is luxuriously elegant, resembling a castle or a fairytale palace. At the time, it was considered one of the rare mansions in Shanghai. In 1935, Wang Boxiong and Bao Zhining held their wedding here. Bao Zhining, a Manchu from Nantong, was the niece of the then Director of the Shanghai Education Bureau. She had a delicate appearance and was articulate, standing out among her peers at Great China University. In 1937, when the War of Resistance against Japan broke out, Wang Boxiong relocated to Guiyang along with Great China University. After leaving Shanghai, the building was managed by Bao Zhining’s uncle, Bao Junjian. Bao Zhining, as the first owner, lived there for only two and a half years. After the fall of Shanghai in 1939, the building was taken over by Wang Jingwei as the office liaison for the puppet regime in Shanghai, also known as “Wang Mansion.” During that period, Lane 1136, Yuyuan Road, became a hub for a group of collaborators and spies including Chen Bijun (Wang Jingwei’s wife), Zhou Fohai, Li Shiqun, Zhu Minyi, Mei Siping, Chen Chunpu, and Luo Junqiang, turning it into the operational base of the Wang puppet regime in Shanghai. Over ten garden villas in the lane were seized by the puppet regime, guarded day and night by more than 100 armed Japanese and puppet troops, keeping ordinary citizens at bay. On March 30, 1940, the puppet Nationalist Government in Nanjing officially commenced operations, and Wang Jingwei used this residence as his temporary palace when in Shanghai. The Yuyuan Road area was heavily guarded, with key intersections fortified and armored vehicles patrolling, which is why reinforced steel bars were densely laid beneath the concrete pavement of Lane 1136.

After Japan’s surrender in 1945, the building briefly served as a guesthouse for the military intelligence unit of the Nationalist government. In 1946, Bao Zhining returned to Shanghai and rented the house to the Cultural and Publicity Office of the British Consulate in Shanghai, residing only on the third floor herself. In the second half of 1948, on the eve of the liberation, Bao Zhining fled to the United States, becoming an overseas Chinese and settling in New York.

In early 1949, the building was taken over by the East China Military and Political Committee of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The Changning District Committee of the Communist Party of China and the District Culture Bureau were once headquartered here. In 1960, the Changning District Committee decided to allocate the space to the District Children’s Palace, establishing it as a cradle for nurturing the next generation and opening it as a tourist site accessible to visitors from Shanghai and abroad.

Wang Boxiong’s Residence was designated as a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai Municipality in 1989.

Wang Boxiong’s Residence has witnessed the changes of the times and embodies profound historical significance. The castle-like crenellations and pointed roofs are truly beautiful—definitely worth a visit.

Address: No. 31, Lane 1136, Yuyuan Road, Changning District

Transportation: Bus: Take bus routes 20 (trolley), 330 (night), 825, or 921 and get off at Yuyuan Road & Anyi Road Station.