On Sunday evening, author Paul French will Zoom into our book club to chat about Wallis, 1920s China, and that infamous China Dossier. Join us! To book: jinshuju.com/f/aftg1k

The former British Consulate Shanghai, where the head of Special Intelligence was, says French, almost certainly the source of the salacious rumors that made up Wallis’ “China Dossier”, rumors that rendered her unfit to be a Queen. 4/

Broadway Mansions hadn’t been built when Wallis visited Shanghai in 1924, but the Garden Bridge was, and she may well have crossed it, passing by the Rowing Club, designed by Scott & Carter, the firm where her closest Shanghai friend started his career. 3/

And here’s the Astor House Hotel, where maybe, just maybe, she danced on that gorgeous ballroom floor. 2/

The house, with its Art Deco shikumen, will be on our Art Deco (Un)Dressed tour this Sunday. Come see it, come hear its stories.

To book: jinshuju.net/f/aftg1k or scan the QR code.

They watched, too, when the owner returned from jail after the Cultural Revolution, and sat in the main hall, catatonic. They watched the stables conveyed to housing, the honey carts to toilets. This move, then, is just another change, but this time, they won’t be there to witness it. 3/

Up here, they can identify every lane, by number. They point out the first skyscrapers: the Garden, the Hilton, the Portman. They watched Shanghai change from this unchanging rooftop. 2/

Then they show you the future: an Old City Disneyland, surrounded by high rises. 2/2