Beishan Street

This guide to Beishan Street in Hangzhou centers on the villa behind you, built in 1932 by Shanghai newspaper owner Shi Liangcai for Shen Qiushui, a former courtesan he loved for decades and made his wife, its windows etched with Belgian glass worked into her name. It follows Shi's newspaper Shen Bao, the government editorials that made him enemies, and the morning in November 1934 when he left this house and got into a car bound for Shanghai. The roofline mixes traditional Chinese grey tile with European villa windows up and down the street, less a home than a public declaration on the city's most fashionable address.