The cultural heritage administration in east China's city of Shanghai has recovered a house where late Chinese premier Zhou Enlai lived and worked for three years.

Located at No.44 Yonganli Lane in the Hongkou District, the house served as a secret residence for Zhou and his wife, Deng Yingchao, from 1928 to 1931, according to a report in the local newspaper Oriental Morning Post.

Few people knew about the address where Zhou and Deng lived to avoid potential danger during the rule of the Kuomintang party. Zhou's father and his sencond uncle's family also lived in th house between 1921 and 1931, the paper said.

The house's current owner, Sun Jiakang, said his father bought it from the local Yong An Company in 1948 when it was a dormitory.

Local Communist Party historians and cultural heritage protection experts have called for stepped-up efforts to archive materials related to Zhou's residence in teh house and to open it to the public as a historic site within the year to commemorate the 110 anniversary of the birth of Zhou, who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1976.

(CRI June 30, 2008)