The sexual adventures of Mao Zedong are well known thanks to the book written by his personal doctor just before he died. But what was his wife Jiang Qing doing during his rampant infidelities? The answer to that question is likely to be found in this exquisite three-storey mansion, Taiyuan Villa, which Jiang used during her frequent visits to Shanghai from 1949 until her arrest in October, 1976.
'Did Madame Mao have many boyfriends?' we asked the woman in a black uniform showing us round Jiang's luxurious second-floor suite, including a large double bed. She giggled and shook her head.
'I am not sure about that. This was the suite used by her and the foreign leaders who used to stay here,' she said. 'It costs 2,400 yuan [about HK$2,247) a night but we can give you a discount.' The suite includes a giant bathroom with gold fittings and a reception room that opens on to a balcony overlooking the lawn and well-kept garden. When Jiang was here, the villa was under armed guard night and day and people who lived in the apartments on surrounding streets were not allowed to open their windows. But the furnishings in her favourite green have been removed.
Her husband used to stay in a similar set of European villas nearby, also built by wealthy foreigners when this was part of the French Concession of Shanghai before World War II.
According to most accounts, she and Mao lived separate lives in their old age so they could have both been in Shanghai at the same time and not seen each other.
After her arrest, government leaders chose other places to stay in Shanghai. So the Taiyuan Villa and its seven rooms was turned into a 'boutique hotel'. But it still exudes privilege and exclusiveness, which attracts visitors as well as the wonderful design and period flavour of the house.
Covering a built-up area of 12,700 square metres, it was built in the early 1920s as the private house of an upper-class English woman named Mrs Marcus. It looks like a small French chateau with its Mansard roof, French windows and numerous fleur de lis motifs.