The Former Residence of Premier Zhou Enlai is a place of interest in Huai'an.
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Huai'an is a city in the north of Jiangsu province. It located in the confluence of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Huai River. It's famous for Huaiyang Cuisine. Huai'an is also a historical city.[1] It produced many famous historical figures, including Han Xin, a strategist in Western Han Dynasty, Wu Chengen，the author of the book "Journey to the West" in Ming Dynasty, the heroine Liang Hongyu and so on.
Zhou was born on March 5, 1898 in Huai'an. He was educated in a missionary college in TianJin. Then he studied in a university in Japan. He moved to France in 1920. He also studied in Britan and Germany. When he was studying abroad, he contributed to the foundation of the overseas branch of the Communist Party of China. He returned to China in 1924. Working for the bright future of China all his life, he died in 1976.
Zhou's former residence was first built in the Qing Dynasty. It located in a small valley called FuMa(驸马.It's an Chinese word which means the husband of the princess) Valley in the Huacheng Town in Huaian. The Residence consists of two messuages. That is the East Messuage and the West Messuage. There are 32 rooms in the house. In some of the rooms there are photos which tell stories ahout Zhou's childhood, his family, his hometown, and people's admiration for him. Zhou lived, played, and studied there for almost 12 years. [2]There is a beautiful lobby called the "Butterfly lobby" where Zhou's mother lived. There you can also see an old well.[3]
There are seven Chinese words(周恩来同志故居) written by Deng Xiaoping at the top of the gate.
The room in which Zhou was given birth to was in the East Messuage. Little Zhou also studied in the East Messuage. The room in which Zhou and his stepmother and his wet nurse was also in the East Messuage. The patches in the quilts proves that this family lived a hard life at that time. In the East Messuage, you can also see the old well and the vegetable plot.
Here are mainly some displays of some calligraphies and paintings. People and see calligraphies written by Zhou's grandfather and photos telling the story of little Zhou and contributions he made to the People's Republic of China.
It's where little Zhou and his mothers lived. Zhou is the Eldest Grandson of his family. His parents gave him the name "Da Luan".(大鸾. It's a kind of bird which is similar to phoenix. In China, these birds symbolizes auspice and happiness.) He has three mothers. First is his biological mother, Mrs Wang(万十二姑). Mrs Wan was educated in the family school for about 6 yeas. So she paied attention to Zhou's education. The second mother is Mrs Chen. Mrs Chen is zhou's adoptive mother and also his aunt. Zhou's uncle was seriously ill and dad no child. In old days in China, there was a saying that of all who lack filial piety, people who has no children are the worst.(不孝有三，无后为大) So the couple adopted Zhou in order to make his uncle happy and remove his disease.(In the old days, it's called "冲喜Chongxi") Mrs Chen was born in a scholarly family and was a typical Chinese woman. Her father was a XiuCai in Qing Dynasty. So she taught Zhou a lot of knowledge. When he was 4 years old, Mrs Chen taught him some Chinese words and some poetry of the Tang Dynasty. Zhou was sent to the family school at the age of 5. After school, Zhou always listened to Mother Chen telling some historical stories. Zhou read Three Character Classic(《三字经》),Thousand Character Classic（《千字文》）, Great Learning（《大学》）, The Analects（《论语》）and Mencius（《孟子》） with the help of Mother Chen. The third mother of Zhou is Mother Jiang. Mrs Jiang was Zhou's wet mother. She was a peasant woman. The characters of the plain peasant woman also influenced Zhou a lot. However, his mothers didn't accompany him for a long time. His biological mother died of Pulmonary disease at the age of 35 in 1907. One year later, his adoptive mother Mrs Chen also passed away. When he was 12, his father's elder brother brought him to the North-east.As a result, he had to say goodbye to his wet nurse. These three women influenced Zhou Enlai l lot in his life.[4]
There is an old well behind the Garret. In the brandreth, the scarches caused by the rub between the role and the well can be seen clearly. In the southeast of the old well locates the kitchen. In front of the kitchen, people can see the Vegetable plot. Little Zhou spent a lot of time with his wet nurse here. Beside the old well,there are two old elms. Each of them is about 20 meters high. They are protected by Jiangsu province government. [5]
Wen Qu (文渠)， is considered to be the mother river of Huaian. It is first built in 1623. It flows through the city and flows in front of the former residence of premier Zhou. Since it's excavation, Wen Qu offers domestic water to Huaian people. It's also used for irrigation, drainage in the rainy season.
Ancient Huaian people built a lot of bridges over Wen Qu. People used moorstone, black bricks and China firs to build these bridges. Most of the bridges are masonry structures or timberwork. They chose China firs because China firs can bear heavy things and resist decay. It's also convenient for people to mend. The carpenters who build these bridges are called "Gao Zuo" (高作) or "Gao carpenter"(高木匠). However, in 2004,the last two masonry structure Single arch bridges (Xing Wen bridge， 兴文桥 and Wei Xi bridge，慰西桥 ) are dismantled in order to build the pedestrian street.[6] Some of the bridges are named from some stories.
It comes from a story of Hanxin. When Hanxin was poor, he was once challenged by a hooligan and was asked to crawled through between the hooligan's legs.Han beared the shame. With this Character, he became one of the "Three Heroes of the early Han Dynasty" years later.(胯下之辱)
It was named after the The Monkey King who is the main character in the book "Journey to the West" written by Wu Cheng'en.
San Si in English means thinking twice. The bridge warns the officials that they should think twice before using their power. Some of the bridges are named in accordance with the Bagua Azimuth (八卦方位).
Zhou became the premier of People's Republic of China. Many people visited his residence in Huaian. Zhou once wrote to the Huaian government and made two requests. First, he hoped that the government don't open it to the public in memory of him. Second is that don't make people move out of the house who have been living here for a long tome. In 1973, he gave three orders: 1. Do not let people visit these house. 2. Do not encourage people who live in these houses to move out. 3. Do not mend these houses.[8] Many Chinese leaders made calligraphy here and speak highly of him. In 1984, Hu Yaobang paid a visit to the residenve. Half a year later, Jiang Zemin also been here to show respect for Zhou Enlai. In 2004, Hu Jingtao came to Huaian and visited the Former residence of premier Zhou Enlai. Now many people come here to pay a visit in memory of Enlai Zhou.