The China Merchants Bank Building

The China Merchants Bank Building

The China Merchants Bank Building (The Bund) is a bank building constructed by China Merchants Bank at No. 6 on the Shanghai Bund. It was the first bank founded by Chinese people, established on May 27, 1897, with Sheng Xuanhuai as its founder. No. 6 on the Bund was originally an auction house, a three-story colonial-style building. It was rebuilt in 1906, designed by F.M. Gratton of the British firm Messrs. D. R. Morrison & Co., with a construction area of 4,541 square meters. The architectural style is a Gothic-inspired civic hall design. The top features a row of pointed spires. The building was constructed in 1906. At its inception, it referenced the management methods of the British Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. At its founding, the state granted it the privilege to issue silver dollars and taels.

It was the first bank run by Chinese people and also the first in China to issue paper currency. Its head office was located in Shanghai, at what is now No. 6 Zhongshan East First Road. The building was constructed in 1906. At its founding, it referenced the management methods of the British Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. In the early years of the Republic of China, the bank changed its English name to “Commercial Bank of China,” becoming a purely commercial bank. In 1936, it was officially reorganized as a “government-private joint operation” bank. Thereafter, the bank came under government control and, along with Siming Commercial Savings Bank, China Industrial Bank, and China National Products Bank, was collectively referred to as the “Little Four Banks.” After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the government took over the bureaucratic capital portion of the bank and transformed it into one of the public-private joint venture banks.

The China Merchants Bank Building, also known as the Yuanfang Building, is located at No. 6 Zhongshan East First Road in Shanghai. In 1897, Chinese people raised funds to establish their first bank—the China Merchants Bank. Today, it houses the Hong Kong-based Parkview Property Group.

Originally, this building was a three-story brick-and-wood structure in an East Indian architectural style. In 1906, it was demolished and rebuilt, designed by the British firm D. R. Morrison & Co., as a pseudo-four-story brick-and-wood structure. The exterior of the building exhibits a British Gothic architectural style. The fourth floor of the building has five pointed spire sections, which originally also featured crosses. The third and fourth floors have small spires. The fourth floor is equipped with pointed arch windows, while the first and second floors have typical Gothic-style tracery windows. The decoration carries a European religious architectural flavor, with green and red bricks inlaid, and numerous slender columns outlining the walls. Later, during maintenance, the walls were plastered with cement, so apart from the framework, the original appearance no longer exists. The entrance is flanked by Roman columns. The ground and second floors feature floor-to-ceiling long windows with arched frames, symmetrically aligned. The upper level has a sloped roof and a row of pointed windows. The southern side of the fourth floor is a terrace, offering a prime view of the Huangpu River.

The significance of this nearly century-old European-style building goes far beyond being merely historical and artistic. It can be said that it marked the inaugural chapter in the history of Chinese finance.

China Merchants Bank was the first bank in China, located on the Bund—a position of obvious importance. The Bund is an iconic area of Shanghai, with its architectural ensemble rich in the essence of Western Renaissance-era design. A collection of buildings with distinct styles, unique shapes, and individual character forms a veritable “Exhibition of World Architecture,” creating a harmonious, staggered, and dazzling skyline along both banks of the Huangpu River.

When Shanghai opened its port, the Bund was just a desolate riverside area overgrown with weeds and reeds, with a path along the riverbank trodden by the sweat of boat trackers. Over the past hundred years, through the invasions of foreign concessions and the exchanges of Chinese and Western economies and cultures, the Bund once gained worldwide attention as the “Wall Street of the Far East.” That series of magnificent and unforgettable buildings also left behind too many historical stories, enough to stir reflection.