Bank of China Building

Bank of China Building

The Bank of China building covers an area of 5075 square meters and a building area of 32548 square meters. It has a rectangular plane and a steel frame structure, which is divided into two parts. The front of the main building is 17 storeys (including 2 storeys of basement), and the rear is 8 storeys in the middle, with 6 storeys and 4 storeys on both sides. It is of reinforced concrete structure, with early modern architectural style. The external wall is a flat granite veneer, the vertical line is the main facade, the square window openings are arranged up and down in order, the middle part is protruding, and the two sides are decorated with hollowed out Shouzi pattern. The top is square and sharp, the middle is jieding, covered with dark green glazed tile, and the slope is gentle.

brief introduction

Address: No.23, Zhongshan East 1st Road, Huangpu District

Bank of China is one of the four official banks during the period of the KMT. Its predecessor was the Bank of accounts in the Qing Dynasty, with a capital of 4 million taels of silver. Half of the investors were originally expected to buy shares, but there were only a few recruiters, so the Bank of accounts appropriated 500000 taels. The bank was opened in 1904 and the Shanghai Branch was established on October 31. The address is Hankou Road. In 1908, the Hubu bank was reorganized into the Bank of Qing Dynasty. During the revolution of 1911, the bank died with the Qing Dynasty. In 1912, the Bank of China was reorganized and established. During the period of Beiyang government, it was always the national bank. In 1928, the national government of Nanjing was founded and the central bank was set up. The Bank of China became a bank mainly engaged in international exchange business.

history

The Shanghai Branch of Bank of China used to work at the bank address of the former account department at No. 3 Hankou Road. In 1923, it moved to the former German General Assembly Building at No. 22 Renji Road (now Dianchi Road). This is a three story Baroque building, which was built in 1908 by German expatriates in Shanghai. It is of brick and wood structure and designed by Beigao foreign company. The top of the building consists of two Baroque towers with different shapes from the north to the south. There are Gables on the middle roof. 2、 On the third floor, there is an inner balcony with doors and windows of coupon type. During the ten years from 1908 to 1917, he was a place for entertainment and gathering of German expatriates in Shanghai.

After World War I

After the outbreak of the first World War, the Beiyang government declared war on Germany and was always confiscated. After World War I, the Bank of China bought it from the government with 630000 silver yuan. After partial renovation, in February 1923, the Shanghai Branch of the Bank of China moved from Hankou Road to work there. Since then, the Bank of China has a place in the Bund where foreign banks gather. In 1928, the General Administration Office moved from Beijing to Shanghai, where it also worked. In that year, the national government decided to set up the central bank and promulgated two regulations of the Bank of China and the Bank of communications. The Bank of China is the Chartered International Exchange Bank of China and the Bank of communications is the National Industrial Bank of China. In 1934, the total number of Bank of China reached 157, with 2528 employees, 547 million yuan in deposits and 412 million yuan in loans, which was enough to account for half of the total deposits of the three major banks at that time, namely, the Bank of China, the central bank and the Bank of Communications. It issued 200 million yuan of banknotes, accounting for about one third of the country. With the continuous development of business, the house at No. 22, Renji Road, Huangpu beach was soon insufficient, so the Bank of China bought the land of Renji road and Yuanmingyuan Road in 1930. Since 1930, the Shanghai branch began to withdraw 500000 yuan from the annual surplus as the fund for the construction of the house.

Rebuild

In April 1934, the board of directors of the bank decided to build a new building for the office and business of the head office and Shanghai Branch, with an estimated capital cost of 6 million yuan. The board of directors of the building management office was specially set up to be responsible for the construction of the building. (interestingly, half a century later, Mr. Pei Ming, the son of Pei Zu and a famous Chinese architect, became the designer of the Bank of China Building in Hong Kong.)

The architectural design of the building was jointly drawn up by bamadana, a famous Shanghai construction company, and Lu Qianshou, head of the Construction Department of the general office. Tao Fuji, a Chinese businessman, won the bid with a construction period of 18 months and a cost of 1.813 million yuan. The foundation pile driving is very authentic. The reinforced concrete pile driven from the north and South wings is 50 meters deep, and the middle part is 30 meters deep. As soon as the foundation was completed, Victor Sassoon, the owner of the Sassoon building next door, came out to interfere and proposed that the height should not exceed the pyramid spire of the Sassoon building. Because he was a high tax payer in the public concession, he had to support a lot of businesses in the lease, so he put pressure on others. As a result, the Engineering Department of the Ministry of industry refused to issue a license to build a 34 storey building. He couldn't give any reason. For a while, he said that Tao Fuji's technical strength was not enough and that he was too close to the neighboring house. Although it was Song Ziwen's idea to build a 34 story high-rise building, he met foreigners and was on loan. In the end, he had to give in and modify the drawing to reduce the floor to 17 stories, with the top 0.3 meters lower than the Shaxun building.

During this period, in 1935, the national government reorganized the central government, the Bank of China, and the Bank of communications. Merchants accounted for more than 80% of the Bank of China, and became the object of grabbing by powerful groups. The Bank of China was forced to add 15 million yuan of government shares, and the total capital increased to 40 million yuan, with half of the government and half of the business. From then on, the control of the Bank of China fell into the hands of the government, and Song Ziwen became the chairman of the board of directors of China. On October 10, 1936, Song Ziwen presided over the foundation laying ceremony of Bank of China Building No. 23 on the Bund. In 1937, the structure of the building was basically completed. Just when the project was about to be completed, the Anti Japanese war broke out and the finishing project was delayed. In 1941, it became the business place of Wang puppet reserve bank. After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, it was used by the central bank again. After several negotiations, it was not until new year's day in 1946 that the Bank of China moved into the office. It was ten years since the building was built.

architectural art

There are decorative stone arches under the eaves. There are nine steps inside the door, columns on both sides of the red copper gate, and stone carvings of Confucius traveling around the world on the outside wall of the door, which were removed in the "Cultural Revolution". The hall is a marble floor with eight immortals on the ceiling and palace lanterns hanging. It was also destroyed during the cultural revolution. The basement had the most advanced vault at that time. There were 14 elevators in the whole building, and each floor was equipped with a master clock. The air conditioning and fire fighting equipment of the whole building were the most advanced at that time.

After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, the Bank of China took over Japan's Yokohama Zhengjin bank, Germany's Dehua bank and the Bank of China, which was reorganized by Wang puppet, and was nationalized after liberation. After 1979, the building moved into the Agricultural Bank of China, Shanghai Branch of industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Shanghai Branch of the people's Insurance Company of China, Shanghai Branch of the State Administration of foreign exchange, and China tea, animal husbandry, arts and crafts import and Export Corporation, etc., becoming a focus of Shanghai's financial industry.

Address: No.23, Zhongshan East 1st Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai

Longitude: 121.48980469023

Latitude: 31.239502354051

Chinese PinYin : Zhong Guo Yin Hang Da Lou