Russo-Chinese Bank Building

The Russo-Chinese Bank Building (华俄道胜银行大楼, Huá’é Dàoshèng Yínháng Dàlóu) at No. 15 the Bund is one of the oldest bank buildings on the waterfront and one of the smallest. It has three storeys, a classical front, and a short history as the Shanghai home of two very different banks.

The Russo-Chinese Bank was formed in 1895 with its head office in St Petersburg, backed by Russian capital and French banks. The Qing government took a share, which is why 华 (China) sits in the name. Its Shanghai branch opened in 1896 on the Bund at No. 29. The site of No. 15 had belonged to the trading house Dent & Co (颠地洋行, Diāndì Yángháng), which went bankrupt, and the bank bought it. According to English Wikipedia the purchase came in 1899; the Shanghai gazetteer implies 1903.

Sources also disagree on the completion date. English Wikipedia gives 26 October 1902, and a Chinese article built on the city’s construction archives says autumn 1902. The gazetteer and Chinese Wikipedia say 1903. The architect was a German firm, called 倍高洋行 or 培高洋行 in Chinese sources; English Wikipedia names Heinrich Becker, assisted by Richard Seel, after a design competition. The builder was 项茂记营造厂 (Xiàngmàojì Yíngzàochǎng). The style is French classical, though English Wikipedia says Italian Renaissance. The academician Zheng Shiling (郑时龄, Zhèng Shílíng) traces the design to the Petit Trianon at Versailles.

Six Ionic columns run across the second and third floors. Relief heads of Greek and Roman figures sit below the eaves and on the column tops, and a small mushroom-shaped turret marks each end of the roof. The walls pair granite with white glazed tile, and the gazetteer calls the tile surface a first at that time. English Wikipedia lists an electric generator, hot-air heating and an elevator among its equipment. Inside, a three-storey hall under a stained-glass ceiling and a Russian-style marble staircase are described in the gazetteer.

The bank was taken over in Russia after the 1917 revolution, moved its head office to Paris in 1922 and closed in 1926. On 1 November 1928 the Central Bank of China (中央银行, Zhōngyāng Yínháng) opened its head office here; its first governor was Soong Tse-ven (宋子文, Sòng Zǐwén). The building was rebuilt in the 1930s under the architect 怀德 (Huáidé).

After the Shanghai Military Control Commission took over the Central Bank in May 1949, the building went to a series of offices. Since April 1994 it has housed the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, with the Shanghai Gold Exchange and the National Interbank Funding Center. These are working institutions, so the facade is the part to see. The building is no. 2A005 on the municipal register and is protected at national level.