Bank of China Building　中国银行大厦

(A National Architectural Heritage)

The building was built in 1937. The 17-story building with a floor space of 32,000 m² was designed and built by Chinese people; it is a building with distinctively Chinese national features.

With the intention to compete with foreign banks and to demonstrate Chinese people's caliber, it was intended to be a 34-story high-rise, making it the highest in Shanghai at the time. The concrete piles of the foundation was very deep, on the north and south side as deep as 50 meters, and those in the middle also 30 meters deep. Unexpectedly, no sooner had the foundation been finished than Victor Sassoon, the owner of the next-door Sassoon House, unreasonably demanded that Bank of China Building should not exceed the top of the pyramid on top of Sassoon House. Sassoon took advantage of the fact that he paid huge taxes in Shanghai International Settlement, and adopted a domineering attitude. Consequently, the authorities refused to issue the license for the construction of the 34-story high-rise. Very reluctantly, the high-rise was forced to reduce to 17 stories, 0.3 meters lower than the Sassoon House.

The east part is the main building, which is of steel framework structure. And the west part is of steel and concrete structure. The external walls are all laid with flat granite, and the roof of the main building is thatched with green glazed tiles with part of the eaves ornamented with arched stones. On the gate facing the Huangpu River there had been stone statues vividly depicting Confucius' tour in all the kingdoms. Outside the gate there are nine stone staircases, implying that nine times nine means infiniteness (an old Chinese saying). The business hall is of marble flooring, and the ceiling is of arched glass canopy. On both sides of the ceiling are sculptured pictures of Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea with palace lanterns hanging in an array. The whole hall looks spacious, extravagant and incomparable.

Address: No.23 East Zhongshan No.1 Road