Appreciate New China's history as nation's 70th anniversary approaches

This was for me part of developing a greater understanding of China. In Shanghai, for example, upon first arriving in 1996, I headed straight to Xingye Road within the Xintiandi area. It was home to a two-story traditional Shikumen building, completed in 1920 and renowned as the site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China held on July 23, 1921. Today it is a ‘must-see' attraction, particularly for domestic tourists and overseas Chinese visitors, along with passionate followers of China's story, such as me. In Shanghai there are spacious garden parks incorporating, for example, Longhua Revolutionary Martyr's Cemetery. In Nanjing, I would take in the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum rising up in forested Zijinshan, the Purple Mountain.