The house at 52 Yongfu Road (top), now home to the Shanghai Paradise Corp, was once taken by the wealthy Sun brothers. The interior decor of the building is of the style of the early last century: There’s a large elaborately carved stone fireplace(left) and in the grand hall on the first floor are two colossal, twisted stone columns(right).

Its rich interior is seen today in films about old Shanghai, but the story of the residence and its former owners would also make an interesting screenplay, writes Michelle Qiao.
Pictures of the house at 52 Yongfu Road look like they could have been clipped from a travel magazine, perhaps for a story about a Mediterranean resort.
A niche of green enameled bricks graces a bright yellow wall - a typical Spanish-style touch - while orange-hued ivy climbs over the red-tiled building.
The interior decor is straight out of the early part of the last century - there's a gigantic, elaborately carved stone fireplace and in the grand hall on the first floor are two colossal, twisted stone columns.
The columns - together with the wooden decorative columns on the bookshelves in the reading room and the wooden handrail on the stairs - have a twisted rope pattern. In addition, there are copper dividers between the columns and the wall, which have exquisite carvings of birds - mostly eagles - and animals and plants. The ceiling of the hall has exposed wooden beams.
On the second floor, most of the rooms have large ensuite bathrooms and each room has a door leading to the next room.
The house and its spacious, lush garden is now the office of the Shanghai Paradise Corp, the city's leading film distribution company which has maintained the residence in good shape, retaining the original fireplace, doors, windows and even the built-in bookshelves.
"We don't use any bright lamps inside the house, only those with a gentle yellowish lighting," says   Guo Ruxing, a manager for the company. "There used to be two big camphor-laurel trees and a 500-square-meter swimming pool in the 2,000-square-meter garden.
"The pool was filled in to build more buildings and one of the camphor-laurel tree died during the 'cultural revolution' (1966-76). The surviving tree has a shade area of 500 square meters," he says.
There are only a few records in the archives about the past history of the beautiful residence.
Qian zonghao, associate research professor at Shanghai History Museum, says: "I have only been able to find records in English about the early days of the house from stories in the old North China Daily News. The newspaper clippings say the renowned American architect Elliott Hazzard built the house in 1932. The first residents were Mr and Mrs R. Buchan, who owned Allan & Buchan, a currency and bullion brokerage. In 1939 they sold the house to a Chinese named C.S. Tung, who was a foreign exchange broker."
According to Chinese author Song Luxia in the book, "Shanghai's Old Foreign Houses," the house was later taken over by the wealthy Sun brothers as their residence.
Sun duoxin and his brother Sun Duosen came from an influential family in Anhui Province. One of their ancestors was teacher of the Emperor Guangxu (1871-1908) in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The brothers' grandfather, Li Hanzhang, was the elder brother of Li Hongzhang, prime minister and chief representative in foreign affairs in the last years of the Qing era.
The brothers were inspired by the success of the Zengyu Flour Factory established by foreign enterprises in 1894 in Yangshupu in the city's northeastern Yangpu District. They studied the wheat industry and even traveled overseas to study flour-making technology. Finally, they decided to import machinery from the United States for an enormous price of US$220,000 and built an American-designed factory.
In 1898, they opened the Fuxing Flour Company on Moganshan Road, the first Chinese-owned flour mill and factory in Shanghai. The company could produce up to 47,000 sacks of flour every day and was the largest flour mill in China at that time.
Warlord yuan Shih-kai asked Sun Duosen to work for him and Sun was made first president of the China Bank from December 1912 to June 1913.
After liberation in 1949, the Fuxing Flour Company became a joint firm in 1955 and in 1966 changed its named to the Shanghai Flour Company.
"Many films have been shot here and it is often shown as the home of a wealthy lady," says Guo.
Perhaps the real history of the house and its past residents would also make an interesting movie.