The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd, (HSBC)　汇丰银行大楼

(A National Architectural Heritage)

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. (HSBC), at No.12, East Zhongshan No.1 Road, was built in 1923. The white domed building sits right by the Huangpu River. The British once claimed that it was the most exquisite building from the Suez Canal to the Bering Strait in the Far East. This building has been a symbol of an omnipotent monopolist in modern Chinese financial world.

The architectural style of this building is from ancient Greece. The building has a rectangular body of five stories with a seven-story middle part and a domed roof. The building is of steel framework structure, and its external walls are laid with pseudo-classic bricks. The internal decoration adopted the classic style with columns of Ionic Order and a vault ceiling. What is extremely rare is the huge mosaic picture on the ceiling of the hall, exquisite and majestic. The internal decoration is luxurious, with fireplaces in the columns and the marble floor. And there are reception rooms in American, British, French, Russian, and Japanese styles. The floor space of the building reaches 32000 m², and the building cost 10 million liang of silver at that time.

In front of the main entrance, there are placed two conspicuous bronze lions. The casting of the bronze lions was absolutely meticulous. At the time of casting, only two pairs of lions were made. As soon as the lions were cast, the moulds were immediately destroyed. The other pair is exhibited in British Museum.

After 1949, this building became the location of Shanghai Municipal Government. With stately People's Liberation Army soldiers standing guard in front, the three tall bronze gates look more majestic. After the economic reform (1979), it became the administration building of the Head Office of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.

Address: No.12, East Zhongshan No.1 Road