宋庆龄

After lunch with the fellowship, ZYJ drove us to the former home of Soong Ching Ling (Sòng Qìng líng, 宋庆龄) who was one of the wives of the “Father of China”, Sun Yat-sen (Sūn Zhōng shān, 孙中山), and we had a lovely afternoon together looking around the gardens and house.

I was told off for taking photos in the house. Whoops! There were some rooms which had signs on the doors saying “no photos” (which I ignored, claiming ignorance), but a lady told me off at the entrance when I was leaving for taking a photo at a place where there were no such signs. As I walked out a bit embarrassed, I simply said “对不起，我不懂” – which was true because, although I realised she must be telling me off for taking photos, I had no idea what she actually said. So some of the photos below might be “forbidden”.

Afterwards we wandered around Houhai Lake (后海) and the Hutongs around there looking in some of the shops and watching some of the craftsmen making things.