Shanghai Daily news

Taiyuan Guesthouse on Taiyuan Road used to be home to American General George Marshall in the 1940s.

 The coromandel screen divides the dinning room and drawing room on the first floor in the house.

Taiyuan Guesthouse, or Taiyuan Villa as it is known in Chinese, is best known among lovers of small, intimate hotels in Shanghai. At US$300 a night, you can stay in General George Marshall's antique rosewood bed in this lovely French-style castle on Taiyuan Road.
"We have nine rooms and usually host minister-level leaders," says Rebecca Tan from the Taiyuan Guesthouse. "When we don't have dignitaries visiting, we are open to ordinary customers, most of whom are foreigners and have found out about the house from travel guides or friends."
Tan says only a few changes have been made to this mansard-roofed villa, first built in 1920s, during redecoration. Original traces are everywhere, from the teak floor, to the wrought iron in the fireplaces, from the beautiful curved iron stairs to the black-toned coromandel screen, which is inlaid to pocket doors to separate the dining room and drawing room.
American General George Marshall lived and worked in the house from December 1945 when he was trying to negotiate a peace settlement between the Communist Party of China and Kuomintang. The negotiations broke down in November 1946 and Marshall left the house with regret and sorrow two months later.
The first floor was his dining and drawing room, which are now part of a Shanghai-style restaurant. His bedroom is on the second floor, which is a two-room suite with a set of rosewood furniture with exquisite carvings. Two antique closets flank the Chinese-style rosewood bed. The spacious bathroom is lavishly decorated with white marble.
Birds chirp in the garden that covers 8,780 square meters and looks like a fairyland, dotted with green camphor, red maple and golden Chinese parasol trees.
The house is also known as "Marshall House" but the fate of its first owner is more of a legend than the general himself. The house used to belong to a French civil servant Comte Maurice Frederic Armand du Pac de Marsoulies, who moved to Shanghai in 1918 after retirement and worked as an international lawyer. He and his wife had two children.
"The Chinese have been saying for years that this old house belonged to a British family called Marcus," says Tess Johnson, a well-known historian on Western-style architecture in China who has written about the villa in her book "Frenchtown Shanghai."
"That is because they rendered the original name du Pac de Marsoulies as Marcus and thus British," she adds. "He was a French count and his coat of arms is on the fireplace. His wife was also French and I have spoken personally to her children, who now live in England. The man was assassinated by Du Yuesheng in 1933 following a famous banquet."
Johnson has written about this bloody family history in her book.
"He (Comte) prospered, but his career came to an abrupt end in 1933, when he was not yet 60 years old. Shortly after taking part in the Paris-Peking Citroen Rally, he was invited, along with several other French officials, to dine with the boss of Shanghai's Green Gang, the infamous Du Yuesheng. This was during a period when there was a turf war over the distribution and sale of opium and 'Papa Du' was threatened by the French authorities with the loss of what had been his virtual monopoly. In any event, the dinner was sumptuous and the event cordial but, alas, within three weeks three of the diners were dead. All were French and they included the Comte."
The man's widow Ginette lived comfortably after being left with a large sum of money and this large house. She was given the nickname "The Merry Widow." She sold the house in 1940 to a Chinese man for 220 pieces of gold bars, who then rented it to the Japanese. US Army General Albert C. Wedemeyer has also rented the house.
After 1949 it became a state-owned guesthouse where Chairman Mao Zedong's last wife Jiang Qing often lived during her frequent trips to Shanghai.
Tan says Jiang wanted the house carpeted in an apple green color, which was her favorite.
"It is a typical French manor house which has had such a long and varied history," says Johnson. "It's been lived in by 'The Merry Widow,' a Chinese, a Japanese general and Generals Wedemeyer and Marshall."
Today, no matter where you walk in the house or the garden, a sensitive visitor will see and smell traces of the past.