All three sisters married powerful men, respectively, from eldest to youngest, H. H. Kung, Sun Yat Sen, and Chiang Kai-shek.
He initially traveled to Java with his brother before being adopted by his uncle, who took them to Boston, United States, where Charlie worked as a shop assistant.
[5] In Boston, Charlie met New Shan-chow and Wen Bingzhong [zh], frequent visitors to the shop, who encouraged him to pursue further education.
In 1879, he fled the store and boarded the USS Albert Gallatin of the United States Revenue Cutter Service, where he was adopted by Captain Eric Gabrielson.
[7] Charlie resigned from the mission in 1892, due to insufficient fund to support his family and became a successful businessperson for printing the Bible.
[10] Acting on the advice of his missionary friend William Burke, who had ties to the Mulberry Street United Methodist Church in Macon, Charlie sent his eldest daughter Ai-ling to Wesleyan College in 1904.
[13] She joined Ai-ling as a full-time college student at Wesleyan in the autumn of 1908, with their youngest sister Mei-ling accompanying them despite being only ten years old.
[16] Ai-ling resigned in 1914 to marry H. H. Kung, passing the position on to Ching-ling,[14] who admired Sun as the hero who founded the Chinese Republic.
[19] The Soong family chased Ching-ling to Tokyo, attempting to dissuade her from the marriage, with her father Charlie even appealing to the Japanese government to denounce Sun.
[22] During a visit to Sun's residence in Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek encountered Ching-ling's younger sister, Mei-ling, for the first time and became enamoured with her.
In 1940, they returned to Chongqing and established the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, which opened job opportunities for people through weaving, sewing and other crafts.
The sisters frequently visited schools, hospitals, orphanages, air raid shelters and aided war torn communities along the way.
In November 1948, Soong Mei-ling travelled to the United States to seek support for her husband, Chiang Kai-shek, and the Kuomintang.
Following the Kuomintang's defeat in the Chinese Civil War, Mei-ling arrived in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1950, while Ching-ling remained on the mainland and joined the Communist-led government.
[27] Deng Xiaoping mentioned that Soong, the aunt of Chiang Ching-kuo, had expressed hope for reunification talks between the governments of Beijing and Taipei in the near future.
In January 1984, the cemetery was re-organised as the Mausoleum of Soong Ching Ling, Honorary Chairman of the People's Republic of China, which came under state protection in February 1982.