In 1908 Gala traveled to China. Among other places she visited Guilin in the south of China. As a French-Swedish artist and based on the photographs and sketches she had made during her journey she was then accepted as an “Artist in Residence” by the Hong Merchant Gallery in Shanghai. She was given a studio in the centre of the “French Concession” in Shanghai where she created about 20 large art works to be shown during a personal show at the gallery during December 2009 and January 2010.
Among the works showed was the series “The rain in Guilin” and “Autumn Lotus”. Other works show markets in the countryside and scenes from rural China. All were made in mixed media technique with prints and acrylic and oil paints on watercolour paper on canvas.