Sanbei Steamship Company

Sanbei Steamship Company

Sanbei Steamship Company

No. 167 Yanjiang Avenue, Jiangan District

Built after 1922

Municipal Outstanding Historical Building (Grade II)

The Sanbei Steamship Company's headquarters were in Shanghai, established as a sole proprietorship by Yu Qiaqing in 1913. It got its name from owning three ships: Cibei, Yaobei, and Zhenbei.

In 1915, the Sanbei Company established itself in Hankou, operating routes along the Yangtze River.

Hankou’s Yanjiang Avenue is lined with many grand Western-style buildings, most of which were owned by foreigners. Yet Yu Qiaqing, a former elementary school apprentice from Ningbo, rose from nothing to found one of the three largest shipping companies in modern Chinese history.

The Sanbei Steamship Company building is a four-story brick-concrete structure, representing a modernist architectural style infused with classical elements. Without Baroque arches or Rococo brick carvings, it remains one of the most commendable buildings along Yanjiang Avenue. Because it tells the story of an ordinary man who, in an era dominated by foreign powers, built a national shipping company — and thus brought Chinese-owned giants to the Yangtze River.