First high-rise apartment built for the returned overseas Chinese

The Huaqiao Apartment was the first high-rise building built after the liberation of Shanghai. At that time, in order to encourage more overseas Chinese, returned overseas Chinese, and their families to purchase housing, the construction standards of the apartment were very high. Imported wooden flooring, radiators, and elevators were installed inside the building, which were not available in ordinary residential buildings in Shanghai at that time. After the completion of the building, He Xiangning, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress at that time, specially wrote the four characters "Overseas Chinese Apartment" for the building. Thanks to high construction standards, after more than half a century, the facilities in the apartment are still quite intact. At present, the vast majority of residents in the Huaqiao Apartments are still former overseas Chinese, returned overseas Chinese, overseas Chinese relatives, or their descendants.