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continued when we visited the magnificent new premises of the Shanghai Library at 1555 Huaihai Zhong Road where Director Ma Yuanling and Deputy Director Wu Jianzhong welcomed us and personally took us on a guided tour. They informed us that the books from the North China Branch Library were presently packed up awaiting transfer from the Shanghai Municipal Library, with display in the new premises set for late 1997. (The surprisingly high figure of 20,000 volumes was quoted). We were assured that the books were being well looked after and would be kept together as a library. Viewers would normally need a library card but special arrangements for HK RAS members could be arranged. (For the success of this visit we owe a lot to the advance work of members Jeremy and Jacqueline Hodkinson).
Finally on the Monday afternoon we visited the Shanghai History Museum at 1286 Hong Qiao Road where Director Pan Junxiang was the host. It was clear that the Museum was modelled on the lines of the Hong Kong Museum of History.
That evening the party flew back to Hong Kong, most impressed by Shanghai's cultural renaissance and very grateful for the warmth of welcome given us by our hosts in Shanghai. For my part, I was equally grateful to the members of the RAS HK Activities Committee for helping the Branch exceed our original aims and expectations for the visit.
NOTES
Couling, Samuel, Hon Secretary & Treasurer of the N China Branch of the RAS, Encyclopaedia Sinica, Kelly & Walsh Ltd, 1917 and reprinted in 1983 by Oxford University Press, HK (OUPHK), pp 96 and 400
Otness, Harold M, "The One Bright Spot in Shanghai", a History of the Library of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, JHKBRAS Vol 28, 1988 pp185-197
Wei, Peh-T'i Betty, Shanghai Crucible of Modern China, OUPHK, 1987, and Old Shanghai, OUPHK, 1993
Johnston, Tess, (with photographer Deke Erh), A Last Look: Western Architecture in Old Shanghai, Old China Hand Press, HK, 1993