No. 23 The Bank of China

The Bank of China Building is a tower located at No. 23 on the Bund, in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Previously the headquarters of the Bank of China, it now houses the Shanghai Branch of the Bank of China.

It was built on the site of the old German Club (c. 1907). It housed the headquarters of the Bank of China. The stunted appearance of the building is attributed to Victor Sassoon's insistence that no other building on the Bund could rise higher than his.

The Bank of China purchased land in Jinkee Road (now Dianchi Road) and Yuenmingyuen Road (now Yuanmingyuan Road) in 1930. From then on, the Shanghai branch would each year set aside RMB 500,000 from its surplus, as the construction fund. In April 1934, the board of directors decided to construct an 18-floor building, for the office administration and operation of the Head Office and the Shanghai Branch. The estimated basic construction cost was RMB 6 million.

A primary reason why the bank officials want to have the building in the Bund concession was according to Zhang Jia and Wang Ao, the then presidents of the Bank of China states because "Bank of China had endured hardship and thrived. Since its infrastructure had been reformed and it was strong enough to compete with those European and American banks on the Bund, it needed a new building, which could symbolize modernity, soundness and international credit."

In the original design, this building had 34 floors and would be the highest in the Far East. Actually, the current foundation was still strong enough for a 34-floor building. However, Victor Sassoon insisted that "any house built next to my building is not allowed to be higher than the spire of the Sassoon House". The Municipal Council of the British concession refused to issue the construction permit with an excuse of "Chinese were poor in designing ability and the 34-story building would do harm to the foundations of the surrounding buildings". Finally, the Bank of China building was cut nearly half, with a top height 1 foot lower than the nearby Sassoon House.

In September 1934, Bank of China established a special Management Council to deal with the construction of the building, chaired by Mr. Tsuyee Pei, Head Office's Overseas Department manager and Shanghai Branch manager. Tsuyee Pei was the father of architect I. M. Pei, who would later design the Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong. The design drafts were jointly prepared by a famous Shanghai design firm Palmer & Turner and Mr. Lu Qianshou, the Chief Architect of the Bank of China. Dao Kee Construction Co., Ltd, a local firm, won the bid by proposing a budget of RMB 1.813 million for the 18-month project.

In 1935, the government of the Republic of China started restructuring the Central Bank, Bank of China and Bank of Communications. Bank of China, whose stocks were 80% publicly owned, became the target of plunder by various powers. It was forced to add RMB 15 million government stocks, making its total capital RMB 40 million, half public and half government owned. With this, the control fell into the hands of the government and T. V. Soong became chairman of Bank of China.

On October 10, 1936, T. V. Soong presided over the foundation-laying ceremony of the Bank of China Tower at No. 23 on the Bund. The building was topped out in 1937. Right then, the War of Resistance against Japan broke out, which postponed the completion. In 1941, it served as the office of the reserve bank of Wang Jingwei's illegitimate government; it had been turned over to the Central Bank after the victory against the Japanese. After several rounds of negotiations, Bank of China didn't move to that building till the New Year of 1946, ten years from the time it was built.

Features

The Bank of China Tower occupies a gross floor area of 50,000 m², consisting of two buildings. The east building is the main one. It is 15 floors facing the Bund. The ground floor has a higher ceiling, plus two floors underground, making a total of 17 floors. The west building is the annex in four floors. The overall outlook carries a traditional Chinese style, clad in smooth Jinshan stones. Its top is a pyramid with a square base. Parts of the brackets are decorated with stone door arches. A cut-out of the Chinese character for "longevity" can be spotted on both sides of each floor, imparting a calm and peaceful air to the grand construction. Traditional decorations are also adopted for the flower patterns and panes on the railing.

In Shanghai's international concessions, the erection of the Bank of China Tower among numerous foreign buildings, a building funded by the bank and constructed by Chinese workers and combining the Chinese and Western architectural styles, has broken the foreign dominance of Shanghai's grand buildings. In other words, it has again demonstrated Bank of China's determination to compete with western banks in China.

On October 10, the 25th year of the Republic of China (1936), Shanghai Times made a detailed report on the foundation-laying ceremony of the Bank of China Tower at No. 23 on the Bund. The original text reads:

"Bank of China to construct a building at Renji Road of the Bund. Our newspaper will keep you updated about its status. We are informed that the bank will hold a foundation-laying ceremony on 10:00 am today (Double Ten Festival). The presence of local financial professionals is appreciated.

Mr. Song Ziwen, chairman of Bank of China, will lay the foundation stone in person. Mrs. Song (Madam Zhong Leyi) will put the commemorative box under the foundation stone. According to sources, drawings of the new building, photos of scenes on the Bund, various local newspapers, various fractional currencies, exchange certificates from Bank of China, list of employees, recent yearbooks of the bank, and among others, are hid inside the box. The bank occupies an area of 55,000 square chi, with its east facing the Bund, its south neighboring Renji Road and the west bordering Yuanmingyuan Road. The underground is 13 chi into the soil. Considering the loose soil of Shanghai, its adjacency to high building on three sides, its closeness to the Bund and the din produced by cars on the street, the difficulties of digging are evident. Although the foundation has not been completed for now, we can tell how grand the construction plan is by simply judging from the completed part. It is told that the outlook of the building will convey a sense of magnificence through a simple style. The surrounding wall in the lower part will use granites from Suzhou. The 18-floor building tops 227 feet, featuring both the modern architectural styles and the typical Chinese forms. The floor area of the underground is quite huge, equaling the total footprint.

A parking lot was built at the entrance on Yuanmingyuan Road. Its equipment including the reserve and safe are quite refined and solid. The total number of safes amounts to over 10,000. The new building serves many functions: one for the head office, one of the Shanghai Branch, and another for leasing. Rumors have it that various institutions under the central government will lease the foyer on the ground floor for their offices. The ground floor also hosts two key functions of the bank: circulation and cashing. On the first floor, there stays the Trust Department, the Savings Department, the Marketing Subsection and the office for the vice manager of the Shanghai Branch. The Marketing Subsection occupies an area above 15,000 square chi, with a half-circle ceiling in height of around 35 feet. The 2nd floor and the third floor are home to various departments of the Head Office and offices for senior employees. A living room, lounge, gym and clinic can be found on the 4th floor. In addition, there is a cafeteria which can accommodate 400 people and a lecture room capable of accommodating 375 people. The architect estimates that the overall weight of the new building will reach 70,000 tons. 2000 trunks, each in 100-foot length, are needed to support this weight. Dozens of nouveau and super-speed elevators are installed inside the building, being completely automatic and with a maximum speed at 500 feet per minute. All offices will be equipped with air conditioning, heating pipes, water pipes and fire equipment.

The total length of metal pipes utilized is 20 miles. Cables used for lights, telephone, bells and various alarms total above 70 miles. The bank will dig two wells, each in depth of 700 chi, contributing a pumping capacity of 600 gallons of water a minute. Upon the completion of its internal installation, the building will become a giant structure in Shanghai.

外灘 - 外滩 上海
The Bund - Shanghai

The Bund (simplified Chinese: 外滩; traditional Chinese: 外灘; Shanghainese: nga thae; Mandarin pinyin: Wàitān) is an area of Huangpu District in central Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The area centres on a section of Zhongshan Road (East-1 Zhongshan Road) within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District. The Bund usually refers to the buildings and wharves on this section of the road, as well as some adjacent areas. It is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai. Building heights are restricted in this area.

The word 'bund' means an embankment or an embanked quay. The word comes from the Hindi-Urdu word band, which has Persian origins and meant an embankment, levee or dam (a cognate of English terms 'bind', 'bond' and 'band', and the German word 'bund', etc). In Chinese port cities, the English term came to mean, especially, the embanked quay along the shore. In English, 'Bund' is pronounced to rhyme with 'fund'.

There are many 'bands' to be found in Baghdad, even today. There are numerous sites in India, China, and Japan which are called 'bunds' (e.g. the Yokohama Bund). However, 'The Bund' as a proper noun almost invariably refers to this stretch of embanked riverfront in Shanghai.

History:

The Shanghai Bund has dozens of historical buildings, lining the Huangpu River, that once housed numerous banks and trading houses from the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Italy, China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the consulates of China and Britain, a newspaper, the Shanghai Club and the Masonic Club. The Bund lies north of the old, walled city of Shanghai. This was initially a British settlement; later the British and American settlements were combined in the International Settlement. A building boom at the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th century led to the Bund becoming a major financial hub of East Asia. The former French Bund, east of the walled city was formerly more a working harbourside.

By the 1940s the Bund housed the headquarters of many, if not most, of the major financial institutions operating in China, including the 'big four' national banks in the Republic of China era. However, with the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war, many of the financial institutions were moved out gradually in the 1950s, and the hotels and clubs closed or converted to other uses. The statues of colonial figures and foreign worthies which had dotted the riverside were also removed.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the thawing of economic policy in the People's Republic of China, buildings on the Bund were gradually returned to their former uses. Government institutions were moved out in favour of financial institutions, while hotels resumed trading as such. Also during this period, a series of floods caused by typhoons motivated the municipal government to construct a tall levee along the riverfront, with the result that the embankment now stands some 10 metres higher than street level. This has dramatically changed the streetscape of the Bund. In the 1990s, Zhongshan Road (named after Sun Yat-sen), the road on which the Bund is centred, was widened to ten lanes. As a result, most of the parkland which had existed along the road disappeared. Also in this period, the ferry wharves connecting the Bund and Pudong, which had served the area's original purpose, were removed. A number of pleasure cruises still operate from some nearby wharves.

In the 1990s the Shanghai government attempted to promote an extended concept of the Bund to boost tourism, and land value in nearby areas, as well as to reconcile the promotion of 'colonial relics' with the Socialist ideology. In its expanded form, the term 'Bund' (as 'New Bund' or 'Northern Bund') was used to refer to areas south of the Yan'an Road, and a stretch of riverfront north of the Suzhou River (Zhabei). Such use of the term, however, remains rare outside of the tourism literature.

From 2008, a major reconfiguration of traffic flow along the Bund was carried out. The first stage of the plan involved the southern end of the Bund, and saw the demolition of a section of the Yan'an Road elevated expressway, which will remove the large elevated expressway exit structure which formerly dominated the confluence of Yan'an Road and the Bund. The second stage, begun on 1 March 2008, involves the complete restoration of the century-old Waibaidu Bridge at the northern end of the Bund. The restoration is expected to be completed by early 2009. The next stage of the plan involves a reconstruction of the Bund roadway. The current 8-lane roadway will be rebuilt as in two levels, with four lanes on each level. This will allow part of the Bund road space to be restored to its former use as parkland and marginal lawns. The new concrete bridge that was built in 1991 to relieve traffic on Waibaidu Bridge will also be rendered obsolete by the new double-levelled roadway, and will be demolished.

The Bund was re-opened to the public on Sunday 28 March 2010 after restoration.

Layout:

The Bund stretches one mile along the bank of the Huangpu River. Traditionally, the Bund begins at Yan'an Road (formerly Edward VII Avenue) in the south and ends at Waibaidu Bridge (formerly Garden Bridge) in the north, which crosses Suzhou Creek.

The Bund centres on a stretch of the Zhongshan Road, named after Sun Yat-sen. Zhongshan Road is a largely circular road which formed the traditional conceptual boundary of Shanghai city 'proper'. To the west of this stretch of the road stands some 52 buildings of various Western classical and modern styles which is the main feature of the Bund (see Architecture and buildings below). To the east of the road was formerly a stretch of parkland culminating at Huangpu Park. (This park is the site of the infamous sign reported to have proclaimed 'no dogs or Chinese', although this exact wording never existed. Further information, including an image of the sign, can be found at the article on Huangpu Park.) This area is now much reduced due to the expansion of Zhongshan Road. Further east is a tall levee, constructed in the 1990s to ward off flood waters. The construction of this high wall has dramatically changed the appearance of the Bund.

Near the Nanjing Road intersection stands what is currently the only bronze statue along the Bund. It is a statue of Chen Yi, the first Communist mayor of Shanghai. At the northern end of The Bund, along the riverfront, is Huangpu Park, in which is situated the Monument to the People's Heroes - a tall, abstract concrete tower which is a memorial for the those who died during the revolutionary struggle of Shanghai dating back to the Opium Wars.

Architecture and buildings:

The Peace Hotel (green steepled building), formerly known as Sassoon House, one of the most famous buildings on the Bund.

The Bund houses 52 buildings of various architectural styles such as Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-Classical, Beaux-Arts, and Art Deco (Shanghai has one of the richest collections of Art Deco architectures in the world). From the south, the main buildings are:

Asia Building (No. 1, The Bund), originally the McBain Building, housed the Shanghai offices of Royal Dutch Shell and Asiatic Petroleum Company.

Shanghai Club (No. 2, The Bund), which was the principal social club for British nationals in Shanghai.

Union Building (No. 3, The Bund), housed a number of insurance companies and The Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China building (No. 4, The Bund), housed the Mercantile Bank of India, London and China, built between 1916-1918.

Nissin Building (No. 5, The Bund), housed a Japanese shipping company.

Russel & Co. Building (No. 6, The Bund), now houses the China Shipping Merchant Company.

The Great Northern Telegraph Corporation Building (No. 7, The Bund), housed The Great Northern Telegraph Company. Site of the first telephone switch in Shanghai in 1882.

China Merchants Bank Building (No. 9, The Bund), housed the first Chinese-owned bank in China is now Shiatzy Chen's Shanghai flagship store,which opened in October 2005.

The HSBC Building (No. 12, The Bund), now used by the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, was once the Shanghai headquarters of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which failed to reach a deal with the Shanghai government to buy the building again in the 1990s, when the Shanghai government moved out of the building that they had used since the 1950s. The present building was completed in 1923. At the time, it was called 'the most luxurious building between the Suez Canal and the Bering Strait'. Its famous ceiling mosaics have been fully restored, and can be viewed inside the entrance hall.

The Customs House (No. 13, The Bund), was built in 1927 on the site of an earlier, traditional Chinese-style customs house. The clock and bell was built in England and in imitation of Big Ben.

China Bank of Communications Building (No. 14, The Bund), was the last building to be built on the Bund. It now houses the Shanghai Council of Trade Unions.

Russo-Chinese Bank Building (No. 15, The Bund) is now the Shanghai Foreign Exchange.

Bank of Taiwan Building (No. 16, The Bund) is now the China Merchants Bank.

North China Daily News Building (No. 17, The Bund) housed the most influential English-language newspaper in Shanghai at the time. Today it houses AIA Insurance.

Chartered Bank Building (No. 18, The Bund) housed the Shanghai headquarters of what became Standard Chartered Bank the building now houses designer shops and a creative exhibition space.

Palace Hotel (No. 19, The Bund), today forms part of the Peace Hotel.

Sassoon House (No. 20, The Bund), with the attached Cathay Hotel, was built by Sir Victor Sassoon. It was, and still is today, famous for its jazz band in its cafe. The top floor originally housed Sassoon's private apartment. Today, it forms the other part of the Peace Hotel.

Bank of China Building (No. 23, The Bund) housed the headquarters of the Bank of China. The stunted appearance of the building is attributed to Sassoon's insistence that no other building on the Bund could rise higher than his.

Yokohama Specie Bank Building (No. 24, The Bund) housed the Japanese Yokohama Specie Bank.

'Yangtsze Insurance Association Building (No. 26, The Bund) Today houses the a Shanghai branch of the Agricultural Bank of China.

Jardine Matheson Building (No. 27, The Bund) housed the then-powerful Jardine Matheson company.

Glen Line Building (No. 2 Beijing Road) today houses the Shanghai Broadcasting Board.

Banque de l'Indochine Building (No. 29, The Bund) housed the French bank, Banque de l'Indochine.

Consulate-General of the United Kingdom (No. 33, The Bund) housed the Consulate-General of the United Kingdom. The building has been renovated and in 2009 re-opened as the Peninsula Hotel, Shanghai.

 

黄浦区 - 黄浦區 上海
Huangpu District Shanghai

Huangpu District (simplified Chinese: 黄浦区; traditional Chinese: 黄浦區, Shanghainese: huaon1phu2 chiu1, Mandarin pinyin: Huángpǔ Qū), also known as New Huangpu, is one of Shanghai's 18 districts. It was combined from old Huangpu and Nanshi districts in 2000 to form the New Huangpu with an area of 12.41 km² and 574,500 inhabitants (as of 2002). Huangpu is one of the most densely populated urban districts in the world.

Huangpu is located in central Shanghai, People's Republic of China on the banks of Huangpu river, after which the district is named. It is opposite to Pudong and borders Suzhou Creek.

Shanghai 上海

Shanghai (Chinese: 上海; Shanghainese: Zånhae z̥ɑ̃̀hé]; Mandarin pinyin: Shànghǎi Mandarin pronunciation: [ʂɑ̂ŋxài]) is the most populous city in China. The city is located in eastern China, at the middle portion of the Chinese coast, and sits at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Due to its rapid growth in the last two decades, it has again become one of the world's leading cities, exerting influence over finance, commerce, fashion, and culture.

Once a fishing and textiles town, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to its favourable port location and was one of the cities opened to foreign trade by the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The city then flourished as a centre of commerce between east and west, and became a multinational hub of finance and business in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, the city's international influence declined. In 1990, the economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance and foreign investment to the city. Shanghai is now aiming to be a global finance hub and international shipping centre in the future, and is predicted to become one of the world's main global financial centres, on the level of even London and New York in this regard.

Shanghai is also a popular tourist destination renowned for its historical landmarks such as The Bund, Peoples Square (the former racing track) and Yuyuan Garden, and its extensive yet growing Pudong skyline. It hosted the World Expo in 2010, attracting 73 million visitors. It is described as the 'showpiece' of the booming economy of China.