Looking for historical buildings on the Bund in Shanghai, with their historical stories

The Bund is the scenery of Shanghai and one of the few urban attractions in the world. Many first-class architects have shown their talents here, leaving behind more than 20 beautiful buildings of different periods, countries and styles, making the Bund known as the "Foreign Architecture Expo". This book introduces these historical buildings in detail, and here are three excerpts for the enjoyment of others. HSBC Building At the beginning of the 20th century, HSBC became the largest foreign bank in China. By the end of World War I, it was officially considering rebuilding its bank buildings. The new HSBC building was designed by Wilson Architects, director of Gonghe Bank. The foundation stone of the building was laid on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 1921, and the topping was completed in June 1923. According to tabloid records at the time, HSBC also invited a Chinese Feng Shui master to choose the date and time for laying the foundation stone, determine where to break ground for the first shovel, and buried a Chinese lucky money under the foundation stone according to Chinese tradition, and Various silver coins from countries around the world. Similarly, when the building was topped out, HSBC also customized many "Liangqian coins" engraved in Chinese and scattered them in the dark corners of the building. How true these stories are will only be known in a few years when the HSBC building is overhauled or demolished and rebuilt. The new HSBC Bank building covers an area of ​​about 15 acres and is divided into a main building and an auxiliary building with a construction area of ​​23,415 square meters. Both its floor area and construction area ranked first among buildings on the Bund at that time. The main building of HSBC Bank is generally considered to be a commercial building imitating retroism. The building is five stories high, with seven floors in the middle and one and a half floors in the basement. The main axis of the building is the main gate and the dome above the gate, and strict symmetry is formed on both sides. This is the most basic feature of European Renaissance art. It can create a kind of symmetry and balance visually, thus creating a sense of elegance and luxury. of intuition. The exterior facade design of the building is what is known as the "three-stage style" in the history of Western architecture. The ground floor forms an independent facade, the main entrance is designed as a Roman arch, and the exterior walls are all veneered with large stones, giving the impression of a building. The feeling of an impenetrable castle, thus giving depositors a sense of security and reassurance, is exactly what bank buildings most hope to achieve. The second to fourth floors form the "middle section". In the middle of the middle section, six Ayenne composite columns are designed for support, four of which are double columns, which makes the original simple plane become more varied and increases the three-dimensionality of the building. feel. Above the fifth floor is the "upper section", where a huge Greek dome is designed, which clearly becomes the symbol of the building and highlights the main axis of the building. The HSBC Building is a modern bank building. Therefore, the design takes more into account the functions and characteristics of a bank building. For example, at the entrance of No. 12 on the Bund, three revolving doors are installed for entry and exit. After entering the door, there is an octagonal pavilion. This is a buffer design between the door and the business hall behind, allowing customers to take a short break before entering the business hall. When there are many customers in the business hall, they can also rest and wait here. Behind the octagonal pavilion is a business hall with an area of ​​1,500 square meters. The walls and dark corners of the hall are equipped with heating equipment and a cold exhaust system. A huge glass ceiling is designed on the roof. The ceiling is inlaid with small pieces of thick glass to ensure fastness. Enough to withstand a thousand pounds of impact. The daylight coming from the ceiling not only provides sunshine for daytime work, but also makes customers feel warm and harmonious. There is an open space between the main building and the annex building of HSBC Bank, which is used for parking. In addition to bank staff's vehicles, cash transport trucks are also loaded and unloaded here. Another house was built in this vacant lot, which was used by bank guards. After nightfall, this building completely isolates the business rooms of the main building from the warehouse of the auxiliary building. Once a police incident occurs, the guards can arrive at the alarm point in time to ensure the safety of the bank. When the building was under construction, the bank commissioned a pair of bronze lions to be specially sculpted by a British artist. The lion is the British favorite beast and is also the logo of HSBC Bank. During the "Cultural Revolution", the pair of bronze lions were promptly transferred by the Shanghai Municipal Commission for Cultural Affairs to the warehouse of the Shanghai Comedy Troupe located on Yongjia Road. In the 1980s, the author transported them out and are now on display at the Shanghai History Museum. In the hall of the museum. This building once served as the seat of the Shanghai Municipal Government.

After the Shanghai Municipal Government moved to its new location in 1997, the building became the Pudong Development Bank property through real estate replacement. The Changes of Jianghai Beiguan The Shanghai History Museum collects a painting called "Three Aunts Playing at the Game", which was copied by Cao Tingshi, a painter from the Daoguang period. The "Danfeng Tower" on the city wall is the main building of Tianhou Palace in Shanghai. Tianhou is the goddess of navigation and protection in Chinese folklore. Regarding the secular life of the Queen of Heaven, there are at least nearly ten different opinions among the people. One of them is that the Queen of Heaven consists of "one queen and two concubines", just like the "Heaven, One and Earth" in the Book of Changes. Their usual image is below Chess, so it is called "Three Aunts Play". As can be seen from the picture, the government offices along the river are the Shanghai Jiang Customs, and the ships docked along the river are sea-going ships waiting for customs inspection. On November 17, 1843, the day when Shanghai officially opened as a port, in order to adapt to the needs of the new situation, Shanghai Daogong Mujiu set up an inspection office along the Bund. In fact, this was just a temporary customs inspection agency sent by Jianghai Customs. The location of this inventory inspection institute should be on the Huangpu River opposite the Jiangguan Customs Building at No. 13 on the Bund today. By the beginning of the 26th year of Daoguang (the end of 1845), that is, shortly after the signing of the "1845 Shanghai Charter" and the establishment of the British Concession, according to the provisions of the "Charter", the concession would become a residential area and trading area for foreigners, and many foreign ships It will dock at the Huangpu River, and many goods will be disembarked here, so Gong Mujiu immediately allocated funds to acquire land opposite the original inspection office to build a new customs "specialized in the taxation of merchant ships from various countries." Because this pass is located to the north of the original Jianghai Pass, it is called "Jianghai Beiguan". Jianghai Beiguan is a typical Chinese government office building. The building plan is in a concave shape, and the main entrance opens eastward on the Bund Road. The gate adopts the traditional Chinese archway roof, and the four characters "Jianghai Beiguan" are written on the lintel. It is said that it was written by Yiliang, the governor of Liangjiang. After the opening of the port, Shanghai's economic development grew rapidly. Twenty years later, the annual tax collection of Jianghai Beiguan exceeded the sum of Guangdong Customs, Fujian Customs, and Zhejiang Customs. Shanghai became the largest port in China, laying the foundation for Shanghai's foreign trade, status as a commercial center. November 17, 1893 was the 50th anniversary of the opening of Shanghai, and the Ministry of Industry and Industry planned to hold a grand celebration. The new Jianghai Beiguan Building broke ground in 1891 and was completed in 1893, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the opening of Shanghai. The Xinjiang Haibeiguan Building follows the foundation of the old site. Its plane is basically similar to the old one, with a concave shape. It was the most common municipal building pattern in the 15th century in Britain, with a bell tower in the center. The architectural style of Jianghai Beiguan has changed from traditional Chinese government buildings to Western architecture. From a certain perspective, it also shows that Shanghai is moving closer to the world. Since the beginning of the 20th century, many foreign-funded enterprises in Shanghai have planned to renovate or rebuild their company buildings. In 1918, after the First World War, this large-scale construction activity began. Many large and beautiful new buildings have been built around Jianghai Beiguan. The original Jianghai Beiguan building with a total height of only 35 meters can no longer be called a building. Among the many luxurious houses, it looks old and outdated, a bit pitiful. Mutually. In 1925, the customs decided to build a new building. Several plans were proposed for the design of the building, but none of them were satisfactory. Finally, Wilson, the owner of Gonghe Bank and designer of HSBC, proposed a new idea. He believed that based on the actual situation, Jiang It is difficult for the new customs building to compete with the adjacent HSBC Bank building. It is better to make it as unified as possible with HSBC in design so that the two buildings become a unified whole. Wilson's proposal was approved, and he was subsequently appointed to design the building. The new customs building is 11 stories high, twice as high as the HSBC. From the overall appearance of the building, the building is still a retro-style building. Perhaps considering that the customs is the country’s foreign trade management agency, the main entrance is designed in the form of an ancient Greek temple, with four classic Doric columns supporting the huge The architecture makes people feel that this is a sacred and inviolable temple, and at the same time, it also makes people appreciate the masculine beauty of the building. The top ceiling of the lobby uses China's most traditional blue and red colors to outline the shapes of Chinese ships such as sand ships, indicating that this is China's sovereign institution.

On the iron sliding door, the customs logo composed of the world's universal golden key and iron anchor means: China's customs has joined the ranks of the world's customs. The top of the building is designed with a four-story clock tower, equipped with a four-sided giant clock customized from the UK, with a diameter of five meters and each hand weighing 120 kilograms. The clock automatically chimes the time every 15 minutes. Standing in Pudong, you can see clearly. The hour hand, the melodious sound of the bell can be heard for miles. The 1920s was also a period of rapid development of world architecture. With the emergence of advanced building materials such as reinforced concrete and new technologies such as elevators, buildings gradually developed to a higher level; for businessmen who value economic benefits, they do not advocate converting many buildings into buildings. Money is spent on non-functional decorations that have only ornamental effects but no actual use value, and designers are pursuing the beauty of modernist lines to replace the cumbersome philosophy of retroism. Therefore, no unnecessary non-functional decoration can be seen on the facade of Jiangguan Customs Building. Therefore, this building can also be regarded as the forerunner of Shanghai's modern works. It occupies a particularly important position in the history of Shanghai's modern architecture. Bund Weather Signal Station In August 1872, Bishop Lang Huairen of the Catholic Diocese of Shanghai and Bishop Gu Zhensheng of Jiangnan held an important meeting in Xujiahui, Shanghai, and decided to establish a "Jiangnan Scientific Committee". The committee has four branches, one of which is the meteorological observatory led by the priest Gao Haoding. It established an observatory in Xujiahui, compiled meteorological records and observation data into a magazine, published it in Shanghai, and sent it to Europe. In July 1873, the observatory was completed. This simple building became the first meteorological prediction and forecasting institution in modern China. Since weather prediction plays an important role in navigation safety, the Observatory has an additional business - providing meteorological information directly to the customs. At first, the customs paid for the weather information to be published in newspapers published on that day. However, the circulation of newspapers at that time was very small, and it was difficult for most sailors and citizens to obtain this information. Around 1884, a wooden weather signal station was built on the Bund of the French Concession with funds from the customs. The latest daily weather forecast was announced to the outside world by hanging different flags on the building. At that time, "Dianshizhai Pictorial" drew a picture with the title "The Sun is Fangzhong", and the text read: At the Yangjing Bridge outside the Bund of the French Concession, new time-keeping balls and wind flags were made in autumn. , the flag is raised at ten o'clock in the morning every day, and the wind signal outside Wusong is reported. Depending on the direction of the wind, whether it is strong or light, sunny or rainy, the signal can be changed at any time to the ball, and the signal is sent to the ball at 11:30 every day. The half-pole is raised at quarter-hour, raised to the top of the pole at 11:55 minutes, and the ball is dropped at 12 o'clock so that residents can check the time. It is allowed to be called a strange system. The flag has no fixed shape or color, and depends on the direction and strength of the wind. It can be seen from the picture drawn by "Dianshizhai Pictorial" that there is a wooden pole on the main building of the weather signal station, with a wind direction and anemometer installed on the top. There is a big ball under the anemometer, which is used to tell the time; There are several ropes next to the pole, which are used to pull the wind flag. Although this weather signal station is very simple, it has indeed become Shanghai's earliest weather forecast station and standard time clock. With the progress and development of Shanghai, the buildings on the Bund are gradually rising, and the requirements for meteorological accuracy are also increasing. In 1907, the weather signal station was dismantled and rebuilt. The reconstructed signal tower was 50 meters high, making it the tallest building on the Bund at that time. People could see the various signal flags raised on the tower from a long distance or use telescopes to decide whether to set sail, so this signal Taiwan has played a considerable role in promoting Shanghai shipping. After the 1920s, with the development of radio broadcasting, weather forecasts could be transmitted to farther places in a more timely manner. The role of signal stations in reporting time and weather gradually diminished until they eventually withdrew from the stage of history. By the 1960s, it had become a preserved historical building on the Bund. In the mid-1990s, when Shanghai was renovating the Bund and building the Yan'an East Road cross-river tunnel, the entire building was moved 26 meters southward without moving the building structure, setting a record in Shanghai's architectural history for moving a large building as a whole. Now, the signal platform has a "History of the Bund Exhibition Room" inside, where tourists can visit and have a bird's-eye view.

Excerpted from "The History and Architecture of the Bund" by Xue Liyong, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, February 2002 edition, Wen Wei Po 2002/7/5