CNAC’s Route Network 1947

China Natioonal Aviation Corp, the flag carrier for Nationalist China, had a route network up and running after the end of the war – old army transports mostly and routes in and out of the former Free China (Chengdu, Chongqing and Kunming) still running along with the former capital Hankow, up to Beijing and down to Canton. Their offices were down on Canton Road (now Guangdong Lu) – that building is still there i think with successive restaurants on the ground floor in the old CNAC offices (Ever Shine once and then some sort of Scandinavian place – below)…

J Llewellyn & Co of Nanking Road

J Llewellyn & Co (Laou Teh Kee – hong name) chemists were originally at 2C Nanking Road (Nanjing East Road), prior to the clearance of that site for Sir Victor Sassoon’s Cathay Hotel. It was there from before the First World War , though i’m not sure where (or if) it relocated after the Cathay was finished. Below is their advertisement and their store.

Gaudy Sing-Song Girls of 1931 China Turn Out to be Red Spies!

I do not know if this story, that appeared in only a single column in American newspapers in March 1931, is true or not, even partially. It appeared in the popular Today column written (or at least attrributed to) the well-known American editor and journalist Arthur Brisbane. Still….it’d make a good movie!!

The Chinese Restaurant, Glasshouse Street, W1

After appealing in my recent blog post about the destruction of the building that once housed The Chinese Restaurant (probably the first Chinese restaurant in London’s West End) for a picture of the establishment. Rob Baker, a great author on London (see his books here) and picture finder sent me this 1928 picture of Glasshouse Street facing towards Piccadilly Circus. You can clearly see The Chinese Restaurant on the first floor….

Destination Peking at the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong – 28/4/21

ONLINE LECTURE (via Zoom)
 
Destination Peking
 
Wednesday 28th April 2021 – 7PM HK time

RSVP: membership@royalasiaticsociety.org.hk

(BTW: members of RAS Shanghai & Beijing have reciprocal rights to attend)

New York Times bestselling author Paul French (Midnight in Peking, City of Devils) returns to the Chinese capital to tell 18 true stories of fascinating people who visited the city in the first half of the 20th century.

From the ultra-wealthy Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton and her husband the Prince Mdivani, to the poor “American girl” Mona Monteith who worked in the city as a prostitute; from socialite Wallis Simpson and novelist JP Marquand, who held court on the rooftop of the Grand Hôtel de Pékin, to Hollywood screenwriter Harry Hervey, who sought inspiration walking atop the Tartar Wall; from Edgar and Helen Foster Snow – Peking’s ‘It’ couple of 1935 – to Martha Sawyers, who did so much to aid China against Japan in World War II; Destination Peking brings a lost pre-communist era back to life.

“Paul French resurrects a Peking that was filled with glitter as well as evil, but was never known for being dull.” – The Economist

Discount Code: RASHK members can get 10% off the cover price (and free delivery within Asia) by using discount code RAS21 at checkout on www.blacksmithbooks.com.

Remembering the Shanghai Art Academy (inevitably about to be locked down!)

The old Shanghai Art Academy, founded in 1912, existed to just after the 1949 communist take over. It’s alumni list is long and illustrious, it was a school that saw modernism and western art techniques fused with traditional Chjinese artistic styles to both pure art and commercial ends. The building, on Shunchang Lu (former Rue Bard) is now apparently slated for demolition – no plaque, no memorial and soon no building at all….click here to read my article in the South China Morning Post Weekend Magazine….

The Oriental Restaurant at Sincere

The Oriental Restaurant was inside the Sincere Department Store on Nanking Road (Nanjing East Road now). The old department store building with its distinctive clock tower still stands on the corner with Chekiang Road (Zhejiang Lu), just as it has since 1917. It’s the rather dismal Bailian store today with no food options to rival the once highly rated Cantonese restaurant, The Oriental. It was there from at least the early-1930s through to 1949.

The Chinese Restaurant – Glasshouse Street – follow up

Yesterday i posted about the destruction of No.4-6 Glasshouse Street, just off Piccadilly. The building was the original home of the first Chinese restaurant in the West End. Here is the 1921 entry for the restaurant and its owner Mr Chong Choy from the Post Office Directory for London…