Beihai Bank Underground Printing House

Beihai Bank Underground Printing House

The Beihai Bank Underground Printing House is a cultural relic protection unit and a patriotic education base in Zibo City.

The underground printing house of Beihai Bank’s Qinghe Branch is now located in Xujia Village, Huangcheng Town, Linzi District, Zibo City. It is an underground cavern structure. At a depth of 10 meters underground, it consists of two rooms: one is the printing workshop, which is 7 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 3 meters high; the other is the rest area, located northwest of the printing workshop, measuring 6 meters in length, 3 meters in width, and 2.5 meters in height, and is connected to the printing workshop. The walls around both rooms are built with bricks and stones, with cement filling the gaps; the ceilings are arched and sealed with cement. There are two exits: one is located under the west wall of the old building of the Xu Shaoxian family, 40 meters southeast of the printing workshop; the other is in the west room of the vacant yard of the Xu Tongfang family, 15 meters northwest of the rest area. Additionally, there are two air vents, which lead to wells outside the village.

At that time, the Beihai Bank Underground Printing House had eight staff members, with Shang Zhiqing as the overall person in charge and Wang Bohuo as the technical supervisor. The workers used two gas lamps for lighting and worked in shifts. Job roles included manual paper cutting, engraving, printing, and packaging. The currency printed was called “Yishou-Linguan Circulating Auxiliary Coin,” produced using 64mo Donglin paper printed on both sides. The denominations were five jiao, two jiao, one jiao, and five fen, with a total of 500,000 yuan printed and issued.

While printing the circulating auxiliary coins, from November 1940 to April 1941, approximately 10 million yuan in one-yuan denomination standard currency was also printed. This was primarily used to cover the expenses of the Party, government, and military, playing a significant role in consolidating and developing the anti-Japanese base areas.

The year 2015 marked the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. In order to promote the spirit of resistance and pass on the red legacy, the Huangcheng Town Party Committee and government, with the approval of the higher-level cultural relics authorities, decided to carry out protective restoration of the underground printing house of Beihai Bank’s Qinghe Branch in Xujia Village. Starting in early May 2015, the two committees of Xujia Village organized an eight-person professional construction team to begin surveying and searching for the cave entrance and the underground printing house (as the entrances had been buried by mud due to lack of protection in the 1960s and 1970s and there were no surface markers). After more than a week of investigation, on May 10, they found the main chamber of the underground printing house, located in an abandoned residential courtyard on the east side of the northern end of the village’s north-south main street. The site was easily accessible and convenient for excavation. The construction team was divided into two groups of four people each, working in shifts day and night to race against time and complete the task. They cleared and dredged the tunnel connected to the main chamber of the underground printing house, which had been blocked by mud. The project involved a large amount of silt, and due to the complex structure and long connected distance of the underground passages, the workload was heavy and the construction difficult, requiring significant manpower and financial resources within a tight schedule. With strong support and assistance from the Huangcheng Town Party Committee and government, the construction team completed the clearing work of the underground printing house by the end of August. The printing workshop and rest area of the banknote printing factory were unearthed, and a 130-meter-long, 2-meter-high, and 1-meter-wide underground passage connecting the printing house to the riverside exit was cleared, removing over 400 cubic meters of silt. Located about 10 meters underground, the site has been largely preserved in its original state. At the above-ground passage exit, restoration and protection work was carried out involving 12 households and seven houses. Seven dilapidated, uninhabited houses were renovated and reinforced. Themed around Red Finance – Beihai Bank, the Red Cradle – Xujiazhuang Village, the Red Hero – Li Renfeng, and the Red Enterprise – Pleson, the site details the development of Beihai Bank, the great contributions made by revolutionary hero Li Renfeng and the people of Xujia Village in protecting the underground printing house of Beihai Bank. In addition, relying on Huangcheng Rose Valley, two Beihai Bank-themed squares were built, transforming the former site of the Beihai Bank Underground Printing House into a comprehensive tourist destination integrating patriotic education, red tourism, leisure and entertainment, and artistic inspiration. Since the start of the restoration project, many visitors have come specifically to see it, especially on weekends and holidays. To date, the Beihai Bank Underground Printing House has received over 200,000 visitors from across the country.

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