"The city bank has arrived. With the sound of the bus stopping, an eclectic building in the classical style on Tiandi Street in Daoli District came into view. This architectural masterpiece was built in 1923 and is currently home to the Zhaolin Branch of the Bank of China. Earlier, it was the Harbin branch of the British HSBC Bank.
The floor plan of the building is L-shaped, with tall double colonnades flanking the main entrance at the corner. The atmospheric and exquisite wrought iron balcony, gray stone walls, tall columns, etc., make the building exude a rich and heavy classical temperament. According to the relevant person in charge of the business department of the Zhaolin branch of the Bank of China, the current building still retains the gate and internal structure of a hundred years ago, and there is a century-old vault in the basement of the bank, as well as a "blind box" safe that has not yet been opened.
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Entering the bank is "like traveling through time and space"
On the 1st, on the morning of an ordinary working day, the Zhaolin Branch of the Bank of China, located at No. 37 Zhaolin Street, Daoli District, was full of people. The public can enter the hall through the dark brown copper door and the three-leaf rotating wooden door, and the modern calling machine will remind the public in real time to go to the counter to handle relevant business.
Many members of the public who come to the bank for the first time will be impressed by the building's exquisite roof, curved staircase and narrow old-fashioned revolving wooden doors, especially the European-style decoration in the lobby, which is particularly novel, as if coming to a museum and as if traveling through time and space.
"This building is the site of the Harbin branch of HSBC, which was completed and put into use in 1923. Wang Gang, director of the business department of the Zhaolin branch of the Bank of China, told reporters that the Harbin branch of the HSBC Bank specialized in carrying out business with large industrial and commercial enterprises in Harbin, and the exchange business passed through New York, London, Shanghai, Tianjin and other Chinese and foreign commercial ports, and also handled small currency trading, bill discounting and real estate mortgage lending, etc., with strong strength and outstanding credit. After 1929, the economic crisis in the West caused a recession in the British companies in Kazakhstan, and the business situation of HSBC gradually declined. By the time of the Japanese pseudo-Japanese period, the business situation was even more in decline. On the eve of the Pacific War in 1941, the Harbin branch of HSBC was closed.
After liberation, the building served as the office building of the Harbin Federation of Trade Unions, the Municipal Education Commission and the Harbin Municipal Electronics Industry Bureau. In 1988, the Binjiang Branch of the Bank of China moved to this building, and later it became the location of the Harbin Branch of the Bank of China.
The hundred-year-old "blind box" safe has not been opened
"The building has four floors above ground and one underground. Wang Gang led the reporter through a long and narrow wooden staircase and walked to the basement floor. The reporter noticed that the steel braces installed under the wooden handles of the stairs were delicately decorated. "These are all left over from the original Harbin branch of HSBC, with a strong British style. ”
On the basement level, there is an exhibition area for the history of the building that is open to the public. Descending the stairs, through a passageway, there is an underground vault, and only a green heavy steel vault door is displayed in front of you. At the invitation of Wang Gang, the reporter forcefully opened the heavy steel safety door, and the unique solid touch was transmitted to the palm of the hand in an instant. The lock cylinder on the door is not rusty and is as smooth as new. "This is an original steel door imported from England 100 years ago and has survived to this day. Wang Gang said.
After entering the vault and passing through another small door, a rather old safe caught the reporter's attention. "Because there is no original key, in order not to damage the cultural relics, we have never opened this safe, but we have explored it through X-ray detection equipment, and it is preliminarily determined that there are still some items in this safe. But it's impossible to see what it is, so let this 'blind box' safe continue to keep its secrets. Wang Gang told reporters.
There are only four such "golden" signboards in the country
"You may not have noticed that the signboard of our bank is golden, which is also the Bank of China. Wang Gang told reporters that the current logo of the Bank of China is in black font, because the Zhaolin branch of the Bank of China is located in a century-old building, so it is the same as Shanghai, Tianjin and an overseas bank, and has been specially approved to use gold font.
"Don't look at the old building, our service is very advanced. Because it is only 400 meters away from Sophia Church Square, during the ice and snow tourism season, we have set up a special tourist service area, preparing ginger tea, charging corners, masks, hot stickers, and travel guide maps for passing tourists. Wang Gang said that after consulting the higher authorities, the bank's century-old underground vault and some indoor buildings are open to tourists, and relevant historical data display boards have been made for tourists to visit, which has been well received by the "little golden beans" and has become a new Bingcheng Internet celebrity check-in point.
Source: Harbin Daily