Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The towering stupas and
prang
of Wat Phichaya, built with materials from China.
From here, too, is a view of Wang Lee Mansion, one of the few remaining walled
Chinese courtyard houses that were once a feature of Thonburi and Bangkok. Wang Lee
Mansion is not open to the public, and in fact is still a residence and a company com-
pound. There is no alley through from Chee Chin Khor to the imposing gate of the man-
sion, so a return to Somdet Chao Phraya Road is necessary before entering the neigh-
bouring Chiang Mai Road. The road is short and runs directly down to what was a har-
bour known as Huay Chun Long, which means “Steam Boat Pier”. here is a shrine here
to the goddess Mae Tuptim, where Chinese sailors would pray for a safe passage across
the ocean. Chinese operas are still performed from time to time in front of the shrine.
On both sides of the road are godowns and shophouses belonging to Chinese merchants,
and the entrance to the Wang Lee compound is busy with trucks and pickups. Tan Chu
Huang, the founder of the Wang Lee business, was an immigrant from Shantou who ar-
rived in Bangkok in 1871. He established a business in rice trading and milling, which
eventually was to become one of the largest of its kind, with a rice mill here next to the
pier and another four further downstream. Following his marriage to a Siamese lady of
Chinese descent, he built Wang Lee Mansion beside the harbour in 1881. Designed in a
U-shape around a central courtyard paved with flagstones brought from China as ballast,
the house is still in the hands of the same family, and has recently been carefully restored.
Opposite to the Wang Lee Mansion is a lane leading to Wat Thong Thammachat, an
Ayutthaya-era temple in a woodland glade that seems far removed from the booming
traffic, despite being only five minutes away from the main road. The
ubosot
, with its neat
red window frames and its neat red fence, sits in a well-tended courtyard with a red meet-
ing hall behind. The lane will take the visitors round behind the temple, through a small
area of old houses, and back out to Somdet Chao Phraya Road. Little can have changed in
this locality over the past century.
A long, straight canal, Klong Somdet Chao Phraya, runs alongside this road. Appear-
ing on late nineteenth century maps as Regent Canal, it led directly to a small island on
which were three palaces, one of them belonging to Dit Bunnag, who had acted as regent