Former Residence of KMT General's Wife Opens to Public

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 ◆ Former Residence of KMT General's Wife Opens to Public

The former residence of Zhao Yidi, wife of the late Kuomintang (KMT) General Zhang Xueliang, has opened to the public in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, after renovation.

Zhang Xueliang, reputed as a great Chinese patriot, and General Yang Hucheng arrested Chiang Kai-shek, the KMT leader, in the famous Xi'an Incident on December 12, 1936, which was eventually settled peacefully with the efforts of the Communist Party of China. This incident impelled Chiang to fight together with the CPC against the Japanese invaders.

However, Zhang was imprisoned by Chiang soon after the incident, and spent decades under house arrest until Chiang died in the 1970s. Zhao stayed with Zhang during his confinement and became his wife later.

On December 15, 1993, Zhang left Taiwan, for the first time in 44 years, to visit relatives in the United States, and in 1995 he and Zhao settled in Hawaii. The general died at the age of 101 on October 14, 2001 in Hawaii, where Zhao died a year earlier at the age of 88.(xinhua)