The General Post Office Building () is the head post office of

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Built in 1924, the four-storey building is located at 395 Tiandong Road, at the north end of the Sichuan Road Bridge, on the banks of the

Suzhou Creek Suzhou Creek (or Soochow Creek), also called the Wusong (Woosung) River, is a river that passes through the Shanghai city center. It is named after the neighboring city of Suzhou (Soochow), Jiangsu, the predominant settlement in this area prior ...

History

In the early years of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

(ROC), Shanghai was the center of China's postal network. In 1914, China joined the

Universal Postal Union The Universal Postal Union (UPU, french: link=no, Union postale universelle), established by the Treaty of Bern of 1874, is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to t ...

, and Shanghai was designated as the exchange for international mail. By the early 1920s, the previous premises of the postal administration was no longer adequate, and land was acquired on the north bank of

for the construction of a new headquarters building. The building was situated within the

Shanghai International Settlement The Shanghai International Settlement () originated from the merger in the year 1863 of the British and American enclaves in Shanghai, in which British subjects and American citizens would enjoy extraterritoriality and consular jurisdiction ...

, midway between the central business district and the

Shanghai North Railway Station Shanghai North railway station (), located on East Tianmu Road, was the main railway station of Shanghai during most of the 20th century. It was closed in 1987 and a replica of the original 1909 building, erected on the same site, is now the . Th ...

. Built from 1922 to 1924 and designed by Stewardson & Spence,Warr, Anne: ''Shanghai Architecture'', The Watermark Press, 2007, the building is in

Classical style Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...

. Its two main facades use three-story high grand order

Corinthian column The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

s. The main door is on the corner, and is topped by a

Baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

clock tower. The sides of the clocktower are decorated with three statuary groups. The central group features

Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orato ...

, flanked by

Eros In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the earli ...

and

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...

, the god and goddess of love. On the second level is the 1200 square meter main trading hall, which was known as the "First Hall of the Far East". The foundations of the building used an ingenious system of tanks, which was filled and drained by water from neighbouring Suzhou Creek as water levels rose and fell. This ensured that the building remained stable and level despite changes in water levels. After the

Chinese civil war The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

the building continued to house the headquarters of Shanghai's postal administration. From 2003, parts of the building, including the courtyard, was converted into Shanghai Postal Museum. Admission to the museum is free. Postal administration functions had moved out, but the retail post office operation continue from the trading hall (though that is now only a fraction of its original size). It is protected as a National Artefact Preservation Unit.

References

External links

{{coord, 31, 14, 47.05, N, 121, 28, 48.06, E, region:CN-31_type:landmark, display=title, name=General Post Office Building Buildings and structures in Shanghai Museums in Shanghai Post office buildings in China

Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Shanghai Postal history of China

History

See also

References

External links