The old villa on Taojiang Road which was once the home of Soong Ching Ling (1893-1981), the wife of revolutionist Sun Yatsen, now houses construction workers. Local historians in Shanghai are urging the city government to preserve the building. (Photo: Shanghai Daily) Photo Gallery >>>

    BEIJING, Dec. 15 -- Shanghai government has been urged to preserve an old downtown villa which was once the home of Soong Ching Ling (1893-1981), the wife of revolutionist Sun Yat-sen.

    The villa is now a dormitory for construction workers.

    Soong lived in the two-story Western-style villa at 45 Taojiang Road, near the United States Consulate General, from 1945 to 1949, historians said.

    Shanghai Qianggu Construction Engineering Company rented the house in 2003 and more than 40 workers live there.

    "The villa is a heritage house with lots of valued history," said Huang Yaping, a scholar of Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Research Institute.

    He said Soong moved into the house, built in the early 20th century, right after China won the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

    In four years there, she transformed the China Defense League she had founded into the China Welfare Fund which later became today's China Welfare Institute. A major mission of CWF was to provide aid for impoverished people, particularly children, who suffered from wars.

    After 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded, Soong, who was also honorary chairwoman of the country, moved into 1843 Huaihai Road M. - which is widely known as Soong's former residence and a famed tourist attraction.

    The Taojiang Road villa, which is less known, was later occupied by more than 20 residents, causing severe damage to the internal structure.

    In 2001, the Xufang Group - a government-run property company - sold the villa to a local architecture design tycoon after relocating all the residents, the villa managers said.

    On a tour of the villa yesterday, a Shanghai Daily reporter found the eight rooms filled with bunk beds. The window frames are rusty, the roof plasters cracked and old wires in disorder.

    Tang Wenzhong, a manager of the Qianggu company, said the house will revert to a private residence.

    Wang Anshi, head of the renovation department of the Shanghai Housing and Land Resources Administrative Bureau, said: "We were not aware of the historic importance of the villa. It's possible for us to classify it as a historic site under city protection."