Bank of Juxingcheng

□ Article / Journalist Yang Yan Tr. by Lei Jing

Bank of Juxingcheng

□ Article / Journalist Yang Yan Tr. by Lei Jing

The air in the street of Wanglongmen smelled fi shy. With a seafood wholesale market, row upon row of shops, a constant stream of people and noises, Wanglongmen reflected a wonderful street life. Amid the buildings on the street near Daomenkou, a Westernstyle structure was surrounded by green protecting net. “It is the well-renowned Bank of Juxingcheng,” said Xu Xiaoyu, a heritage protection of fi cial in Yuzhong District. Constructed in the Republic of China, the four-floor building at 112 Jiefang Donglu, Yuzhong District, has become a low and unobtrusive one in surrounding residential compounds. It is unknown that how many of the people walking by the bank every day would remember its remarkable past.

The Largest Single Building as A War Ruin Being Restored So Far

March 13 marked the beginning of the renovation of Bank of Juxingcheng, one of key cultural relics protection units of fi nancial institutions during the war against Japanese aggression. “It is so far the largest single building as a war ruin being restored in our city,”remarked Xu.

Founded in 1915, the bank made a great contribution to the economic growth of the rear in wartime, occupying an important place in the financial sector of Southwest China, and even of modern China. It also is served as a witness to the history of Chongqing as the alternate capital. In 2013, Bank of Juxingcheng was listed as a key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council.

The bank had 32 branches in cities like Shanghai, Wuhan,Tianjin, Yichang, Chengdu and so forth, all of which have left local communities with excellent characteristic architectures, in which the Chongqing headquarters building, however, was the largest one,having a floor area of 6,498 square meters and covering a land area of 2,082 square meters. The four-floor brick-wood building combined features of western and Chinese style. Now it was protected by high walls at three sides and a hardly spacious gate,which left the building completely concealed. Nevertheless, it was indeed a colossus compared with other buildings at that time.

The Bank was Designed after Mitsui Bank of Japan

The building was a typical combination of western and Chinese architectures in Chongqing. Juxing Journal, the bank’s internal documents collected by Xiao Nengzhu, an expert in literature and history, unveiled the original structure. The H-shaped building was grand and magni fi cent, with a four-story brick-wood structure on the ground, as well as a story house and a basement under ground.

It was a regret, however, that the original European dome was no longer there. “The century-old bank lost its dome in bombings at war, after which the relevant departments carried out restoration projects but the dome could hardly be restored,” explained Xiao.

“The original architecture of Bank of Juxingcheng, as the spearhead to use concrete structures, was a building of modern style in the city. Its innovation was a result of the foresight of Yang Xizhong,the second son of the bank’s founder, Yang Wenguang,” added Xiao. When Yang Zhongxi returned to Chongqing from Japan, he persuaded his father to start a bank following the practice of Mitsui Bank, a Japanese family financial group. The design work was entrusted to Yu Zijie, an engineer who had returned after studying in Japan too. With a great admiration for the achievement of Mitsui group, Yang Zhongxi was determined to establish a similar family fi nancial group in China. As a result, he did his best to promote to his families the business pattern of the Japanese bank.

The office of Bank of Juxingcheng was made of stone with thick walls and high ceilings. It has arched wooden doors and windows,beautiful and elegant. Walking on the wooden floor makes the footstep echo in the corridor and reminds visitors of the bustling scenes one century ago.

The First Private Commercial Bank in Chongqing to Open Branches Abroad

“Do not belittle Bank of Juxingcheng. It was the first commercial bank supported by national capital in Chongqing,” said Xiao. In 1891, Chongqing established a trading port and became the fi rst city in western China to open to the outside world. As steamships became a main player in shipping industry, they brought commodities to Chonagqing, to neighboring countries and to other parts of the world. And Chongqing gradually became the fi nancial center in southwestern China.

It is recorded that Da Tongjie and nearby streets were lined with dozens of banks, including Bank of Communications, Chuankang Bank, American Oriental Banking Corporation, Bank Of China,Chuanyan Bank and Hecheng Bank. Bank of Juxingcheng was also located in the area. As one of the bands of banks in Sichuan Province, Bank of Juxingcheng developed into the most powerful and admired commercial bank across China.

On the day when it opened for business, high-ranking officials,leaders of all circles, staff of consulates and foreign businessmen attended the ceremony. It scored the fi rst to had an English name at that time: YOUNG BROTHERS BANKING CORPORATION.The foundation of Bank of Juxingcheng indicated the development of the family financial group. In 1946 when the bank was designated as a foreign exchange bank, it established four foreign departments in Chongqing, Shanghai, Kunming, and Guangzhou,signing contracts for foreign exchanges with financial institutions in London, San Francisco, Calcutta, Mumbai and so forth. In all,including the head of fi ce, it had 33 of fi ces all over the country, two thirds of which were in the lower reach of the Yangtze River, and one thirds in Sichuan Province.

Internal Documents of the Bank Exposed Advanced Enterprise Culture

It is said that the past events of Bank of Juxingcheng was like the Chongqing version of Empire of Silver, and that is true. Yang Cansan, the third son of Yang Wenguang, was a famous fi nancier and national capitalist. He was dispatched to Shanghai to be a banker at the age of 18. Shanghai was a domestic and foreign trade port at that time, so he associated with many entrepreneurs at home and abroad, got acquainted with Chinese and foreign business conditions and picked up much experience. And he expanded business aggressively when he went back to Chongqing to run the Juxingcheng fi rm.

“It is really difficult for a local bank to go abroad, so Yang’s advanced business mind deserves to be mentioned”, said Xiao.Yang Wenguang, the founder of the business, forsook oldfashioned bookkeeping and employed the western-style one in order to get to know the pro fi t and loss more quickly. The advantage had been highlighted after Yang Cansan took the firm over. And his insights even exceed those of business veterans thanks to his overseas study experience. When he took control of the fi rm, the fi rst thing he did was to change the last word of the company name into cheng (which means honesty in Chinese). He thought that the reunion and prosperity relied on honesty, with which a company could win people’s confidence. And it has become one of the enterprises culture of Bank of Juxingcheng.

The enterprises culture of Bank of Juxingcheng was far more than that, which could be inferred from Juxing Journal. Bank of Juxingcheng had its own song, clerk motto, detailed documents from dialects correspondence to “Analysis on banking crisis and its countermeasures”, along with an open and transparent system and cultivation of a large number of elites. That was why all clerks came together and turned the corner when the company was at stake.

After the Revolution of 1911, Sichuan experienced a long-term warlordism, banking industry became the main target to be extorted, and Bank of Juxingcheng bore the brunt of all the banks.In 1926, Yangsen stationed troops in Wanxian, demanded money from Wanxian branch twice and even wielded a big stick to force the bank to open the vault and draw money for him. Up to 1927,the total of principal and interest of margin borrowing of warlords from Juxingcheng Bank had amounted to one million silver dollars,one and a half million along with money from other industries of Yang family. During that time, Yang Cansan mobilized all clerks to “defend the bank against margin borrowing” and fight against Sichuan warlord Liu Xiang. The fight received substantial results due to solidarity of all the clerks.

Explore the Bank’s Secret Basement

Just like everyone believed, there was a mysterious place in Bank of Juxingcheng, the underground vault. Walking down the stone ladder of central patio in the Bank of Juxingcheng, the journalist caught sight of an archway on the fi rst fl oor underground.Everything went black when he opened the rusty iron gate,heading forward, the underground vault was in the innermost area.Xiao said, it was a basement rather than a vault. Except for the basement of 20 square meters discovered previously, a bigger basement was found on the second fl oor underground during the repair process. “At present, the basement is well preserved, and the state of the art indicates its tremendous strength, for instance,the thick gate made of heavy weight steel with cement in the middle is perfectly fi reproof.”

According to the historical record, Bank of Juxingcheng made pro fi t by acquisition of pure gold from Chongqing, Wanxian (today’s Wanzhou), Yichang and other places. In 1930, the bank built a furnace itself to refine golden bar of ten taels (a Chinese unit of measurement) out of alluvial gold and jewelries and marked “Cheng”on it. In 1938, the gold business in Chengdu branch had reached about 1000 taels.

According to Xu, similar basements for storing valuables had been found in the underground of sites of central bank and Chuankang bank. Among all the sites of financial institutions during the Anti-Japanese war, basement of Juxingcheng bank is the only one that is open to the public, as an exhibition of the bank’s history.

Restore the “National Protection Unit”, Present it to the World

Bank of Juxingcheng had extensive experiences. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, some buildings of the bank were requisitioned for the Foreign Minister of the national government. It was part of Chongqing agriculture trade center after liberation, once used as guesthouse and also storehouse for drugs, now it is of fi ce of countryside joint business household appliance market limited liability company.

According to of fi cial Xu, in order to strengthen the protection and utilization of the former site of Juxingcheng bank, City Heritage Council will include it into protection and utilization projects for key sites of anti-Japanese war in 2017, guide the administrative units in Yuzhong district—Chongqing Countryside Joint Business Household Appliance Market Limited Liability Company to carry out research on cultural relics and project design for protection and renovation so as to lay a solid foundation for realization of protection and renovation for cultural relics.

Besides strict quality control, City Heritage Council will, according to implementation condition, strive to maintain the authenticity and integrity of cultural relics, explore the way for reasonable utilization of cultural relics, stick to the public welfare feature for cultural relics to serve the society, actively promote the exhibition of cultural relics.At the same time, its periphery environment will also be improved.The “national protection unit” is estimated to be presented to the world with a brand-new outlook in 2018.