Shangde Pawnshop

Shangde Pawnshop

Shangde Pawnshop is a Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Shangde Pawnshop (Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit)

Era: Qing Dynasty

Announcement Date: March 16, 2005

Shangde Pawnshop was built in the late Qing Dynasty. The front part functioned as a pawnshop, while the rear was a residence, combining commerce and living quarters in a single merchant’s compound. It faces west and sits on an east-west axis, featuring in sequence a gatehouse, ceremonial gate, front building, rear building, with wing rooms and some auxiliary structures along the sides, covering a total floor area of 1,229 square meters. The gatehouse originally served as the pawnshop area. It is a two-story structure with five bays, spanning 11.80 meters in width and 7.40 meters in depth. The central bay features a raised-beam framework with seven rafters and three columns. The front eave columns and front gold columns have a boat-shaped canopy on the first floor, while the front wall is built thick with brick, in the center of which is a stone-embedded gate. The roof has a flush gable design with interlocking tiles, and the sides are enclosed with decorative gable walls. Passing through the ceremonial gate leads to the residential section. Both the front and rear buildings have five bays, with a structural framework similar to that of the gatehouse. The north secondary bay of the front building includes an underground storage room approximately 2 meters deep. The building boasts exquisite wood carvings and finely crafted brick gateways, with tall fireproof gable walls enclosing the entire structure.

The layout of Shangde Pawnshop is rational and orderly, integrating commerce and residence with clear functional zoning. Its architectural framework showcases distinctive local traditional characteristics, and the wood and brick carvings are quite refined. As a representative example of a late Qing Dynasty Shaoxing building that combines commerce and living spaces, it remains well-preserved and provides a typical case study for researching the architectural layout and developmental history of traditional pawnshops.

Source: Zhejiang Cultural Relics Website

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units