Former Site of the Hangzhou Customs Office

Former Site of the Hangzhou Customs Office

The former site of the Hangzhou Customs Office is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Zhejiang Province.

The former site of the Hangzhou Customs Office is located within the Second People's Hospital of Hangzhou at No. 126 Wenzhou Road, belonging to Wenzhou Road Community in Gongchenqiao Subdistrict. It dates back to the Qing Dynasty and the Republican era.

In 1895, following China’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which forced Hangzhou to open as a trading port. In October of that year, it was decided to allocate land near Gongchen Bridge for Japanese merchants and residents to settle and trade.

The establishment of the Public Trading Market and the Japanese Concession officially opened Hangzhou to foreign commerce. Britain, the United States, and other countries all requested to lease land within the Trading Market at Gongchen Bridge for business operations. The Zhejiang Governor had no choice but to “reply affirmatively to the various nations,” and the Gongchen Bridge area soon became a playground for imperialist powers to conduct business, invest, and exploit resources. In response to this situation, in June and July 1896 (the 22nd year of the Guangxu reign), the Qing government established a “customs house” in Hangzhou to open the port for trade. At the time, Hangzhou’s “customs house” was officially called the “Hangzhou Customs Office,” also known as the “Foreign Customs,” and its office was built within the Gongchen Bridge Trading Market (now within the Second People's Hospital of Hangzhou).

On October 1, 1896, the Hangzhou Customs, the Trading Market, and the Japanese Concession were officially put into use simultaneously. At that time, the Hangzhou Customs was the city’s primary tax collection authority and a hub for goods entering and leaving the city. On the eve of the Japanese occupation of Hangzhou in December 1937, the Hangzhou Customs withdrew and relocated elsewhere. After the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, although the Hangzhou Customs was ordered to restore its original offices, it was no longer located at the original Gongchen Bridge site and was closed on December 4, 1945. During the War of Resistance, several buildings left behind by the “Foreign Customs” at Gongchen Bridge briefly served as the headquarters of the Japanese Kempeitai. After the war, part of the “Foreign Customs” became the site of the Kuomintang-run Hang County Government, while another part was allocated as dormitories for the Agricultural Research Institute. In the early years after the liberation, the entire “Foreign Customs” complex was taken over by the Agricultural Research Institute, until it was handed over to the Second People's Hospital of Hangzhou in 1954.

The three remaining buildings of the Foreign Customs are now located within the inpatient department of the Second People's Hospital of Hangzhou. The North Building currently houses the hospital’s General Affairs Office, the East Building serves as dormitories for the hospital’s trainees, and the South Building functions as the hospital’s pharmaceutical warehouse. The three structures are arranged in a “品” (pin) shape, interspersed with later-built medical facilities. The East, South, and North Buildings all have rectangular floor plans, are two stories high with brick-and-wood structures, feature red exposed brick exteriors, and mostly exhibit British-inspired “arcade-style” facades. Their roofs are sloped with short and shallow eaves.

The construction of the Foreign Customs is closely linked to the unique historical conditions of the Gongchen Bridge area in Hangzhou during a specific period and serves as an important “window” into the city’s modern history. The surviving architecture of the Foreign Customs embodies the characteristics of the semi-feudal, semi-colonial era, providing tangible material for later generations to understand and study the architecture of that period.

On January 7, 2011, it was designated as part of the sixth batch of cultural heritage sites protected at the provincial level in Zhejiang Province.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of Cultural Heritage Sites Protected at the Provincial Level in Zhejiang Province