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In 1933, on a winter’s night in the Russian town of Yekaterinburg, Faina Vakhreva -- then 17 years old -- was walking home and became the unwanted subject of attention of a Russian man who began harassing her. A 23-year-old Chinese man also walking home at the time, saw what was happening and chased away the harasser. The Chinese man was future Taiwan (ROC) president Chiang Ching-kuo. Faina and CCK would be a couple for 55 years.
Cover image: Future ROC President Chiang Ching-guo, his Belorussian wife Faina Chiang Fang-liang, and son in Gannan, sometime in the early 1940s. Chiang Ching-kuo served as commissioner of Gannan Prefecture (贛南) between 1939 and 1945.
(Image via Public Domain)
Below: The family of Chiang Ching-kuo. From left to right: Front – Alex, Faina, Chiang Ching-kuo, Eddie; Rear – Alan, Chiang Hsiao-chang.
(Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Unknown)
Below: Faina Chiang Fang-liang 蔣方良 in 1944, cropped from the image at http://lz.book.sohu.com/chapter-1251-4-2.html
(Via Wikimedia Commons/Jiang)
The "Seven Seas" Guesthouse is now a public museum featuring items from the presidency of CCK.
Article from the TAIPEI TIMES on 2022 opening
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
