Pudong Development Bank

It is no surprise that Shanghai is once regarded as an oriental financial hub. A look around the Bund area gives a good idea of this, as visitors can see for themselves the banks lining the street as that already did a century ago. At that time, the most influential one was the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Established in Hong Kong in 1864, the bank set up its Shanghai branch a year later in an old baroque-styled three-story office building. The bank accumulated immense assets in less than 10 years, and its business even involved into the sphere of custom duties and the salt tax-lifelines of the Chinese economy.

The building was erected in the ancient Greek style which belonged to neo-classical school. Marked by horizontal lines, exterior walls are made up of huge stone blocks. The facades are adorned with adjoining arched gates and powerful Corinthian pilasters. Richly decorated Roman Corinthian pillars stand between the 2^nd and the 4^th floor .The building, a rectangular establishment, not only looks gorgeous and splendid but also reminds one of financial abundance and reliability, and was described as the “finest building to be found anywhere between the Suez Canal and the Bering Strait.”

The entrance hall includes an ornate octagonal dome connecting the arched doorway with a veranda and a lounge. The ground hall is supported by 18-meter-tall Italian marble pillars. The ceiling was elaborately decorated with breath-taking mosaic frescos, depicting the mother of harvest surrounded by the constellations.

The HSBC moved out of the building in 1955, leaving it to the Shanghai Municipal Government. On December 12, 1996, the Pudong Development Bank became the new owner of this building.

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