The Custom House () is an eight story building on

the Bund The Bund is a waterfront area and a protected historical district in central Shanghai. The area centers on a section of Zhongshan Road (East Zhongshan Road No.1) within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the wester ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. Built in 1927, the building remains a customs house today. Together with the neighboring HSBC Building, the Custom House is seen as one of the symbols of the Bund and Shanghai. Custom House Shanghai

History

The Shanghai Custom House was first set up in the late 17th century, when the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 165420 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, personal name Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign of 61 ...

lifted the ban against sea trade after conquering

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. To facilitate trading along the east coast of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, the Qing government set up customs houses in the four coastal provinces of

Jiangnan Jiangnan is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of its delta. The region encompasses the city of Shanghai, the southern part of Jiangsu ...

(now split into Jiangsu and Anhui),

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

, and

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

. The name "Jiangnan Custom House" was abbreviated to "Jiang Custom House", or ''Jiang Haiguan'' () in Chinese. The principal customs house, originally located at

Lianyungang Lianyungang () is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Jiangsu province of China, province, China. It borders Yancheng to its southeast, Huai'an and Suqian to its south, Xuzhou to its southwest, and the province of Shandong to its north. Its ...

was later set up just outside the east gate of the walled city of Shanghai (then part of Jiangnan Province), by the

Huangpu River The Huangpu (), formerly romanized as Whangpoo, is a river flowing north through Shanghai. The Bund and Lujiazui are located along the Huangpu River. The Huangpu is the biggest river in central Shanghai, with the Suzhou Creek being its ...

. With the development of overseas trade in Shanghai, the location of the customs house became increasingly inconvenient, with foreign merchants preferring to berth their ships further out to sea, near today's Bund. The governor of Shanghai then set up a check point at the south end of the Bund. Upon further insistence by the British consul to move the customs house inside the British concession, a new customs house was built at the present site. This new house is known as the New Custom House, North Customs House, or "Foreign Custom House", whereas the old customs house was known as the "Grand Custom House". In 1853, the rebelling

Small Swords Society Small Swords Society or Small Sword Society was a political and military organisation active in Shanghai, China, and neighbouring areas amid the Taiping Rebellion, between about 1840 and 1855. Members of the society, rebelling against the Qing dy ...

burnt down the Grand Custom House. In 1860, the Taiping Revolution Army burnt down the rebuilt Grand Custom House. It was decided not to rebuild the Grand Custom House, with the current building becoming the new headquarters. During these rebellions, British authorities in the city declared the concession to be neutral. They then expelled the Qing officials from the North Custom House by force, on the grounds that they could not collect customs in neutral territory. After the rebellion, Qing authorities in Shanghai were forced to set up their own customs authority, first on two gunboats parked across the river in

Pudong Pudong is a list of administrative divisions of Shanghai, district of Shanghai located east of the Huangpu River, Huangpu, the river which flows through central Shanghai. The name ''Pudong'' was originally applied to the Huangpu's east bank (g ...

, then on the north bank of Suzhou River. However, foreign merchant vessels ignored these ineffective customs posts. In 1854, the British obtained the power of customs in the concession. Britain, France, and the United States each nominated one person to form a "Foreigners Tax Committee", which operated from the Custom House. Subsequently, the Qing government agreed to appoint a Briton as an inspector general of the newly formed

Chinese Maritime Customs Service The Chinese Maritime Customs Service was a Chinese governmental tax collection agency and information service from its founding in 1854 until it split in 1949 into services operating in the Republic of China on Taiwan, and in the People's Republ ...

. In 1857, the Shanghai government spent 6800

tael Tael ( ),"Tael" entry
at the

Sir Robert Hart was appointed to the position of inspector general, a position that he held until 1911. A statue of Hart which had originally stood at the junction of Jiujiang road and the Bund was moved to a position in front of the Custom House in 1927. During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai the statue was taken down in September 1943. As rebuilt in 1857, the New Custom House was in the traditional Chinese

Yamen A ''yamen'' (''ya-men''; ; Manchu: ''yamun'') was the administrative office or residence of a local bureaucrat or mandarin in imperial China, Korea, and Vietnam. In some places, such as Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong, it was named as ''al ...

style. It was fronted with a monumental arch or ''pailou'' () and two flag poles. By 1859, the building had become outdated. The governor of Shanghai then applied for funding to rebuild it. Robert Hart chose a Gothic design, with a five-story rectangular clock tower in the center, and two three-story wings beside it, surrounding a quadrangle. This was built in 1891. This building was again demolished in 1925 to make way for the current structure designed by architects

Palmer and Turner Palmer may refer to: People and fictional characters * Palmer (pilgrim), a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land * Palmer (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Palmer (surname), including a list of people and f ...

. The new building was completed on 19December 1927, and cost 4.3 million taels of silver, twice the budget. It was the tallest building on the Bund at the time of construction. The building remains a customs house today. A few rooms have been used as residences since families moved in after 1949. These are located at the back of the building.

Layout

The present Custom House occupies an area of , with of floor space. The building is in two section: the eastern section is eight stories tall and faces the

. It is topped by a clock tower, which is eleven stories or tall. The western section is five stories tall and faces onto Sichuan Road. A

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

core was used while the exterior follows a Greek-revival

Neo-Classicist Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

design. The eastern section is entirely surfaced in

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, as are the first two stories of the western section, with the upper three stories faced with brown bricks. The main entrance has four Doric columns. Eaves are found above the first and second stories, with a larger one above the sixth floor. Large stone columns penetrate from the third to the sixth story. Inside the main entrance is the main hall, in which marble columns are decorated with gold leaf. At the center is an octagonal dome, with mosaics on the eight sides. The most noted feature of the Custom House is the clock tower and clock. The clock tower offers views over the entire Bund and Shanghai city centre. It has four faces, each made up of more than 100 pieces of glass, between in size. The diameter of each face is , with 72 automatic lamps. The clock and bell mechanisms are built according to the design of

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, and, by extension, for the clock tower itself, which stands at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England. Originally named the Clock Tower, it ...

at the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...

. The five bells (largest 6 tonnes) were cast by

John Taylor Bellfounders John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry. It is located in Loughborough, ...

and the clock mechanism was built by

JB Joyce & Co J. B. Joyce & Co, clockmakers, were founded in Shropshire in England. The company claim to be the oldest clock manufacturer in the world, originally established in 1690, and have been part of the Smith of Derby Group since 1965. The claim is ch ...

in England before they were shipped to Shanghai in 1927. It remains the largest mechanical clock in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

, the clock music was changed to '' The East is Red''. The traditional tune (the Westminster Quarters) was restored in October 1986, when

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

visited Shanghai. In 1997, however, on the eve of

Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong The handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China was at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony, which began in 1841. Hong Kong was established as a specia ...

, the municipal Communist Party branch ordered the music to be stopped, leaving only the hour strike. In 2003, the tune was changed once again to ''The East is Red''. The clock's mechanisms are not in fact able to play this tune: the music played is in fact a recording played over loudspeakers, but was used to be played on bells. the bells no longer play the tones.外滩最高点的钟楼里，悠扬钟声中到底隐藏多少秘密
. 2017-04-05. 廖信忠.

References

Shanghai Customs - Official Website

Skyscraper Page - Custom House

High resolution photographs of historical buildings in Shanghai taken in July 1994

{{coord, 31, 14, 20, N, 121, 29, 0, E, type:landmark_region:CN-31, display=title Buildings and structures in Shanghai Custom houses Landmarks in Shanghai The Bund 1927 establishments in Shanghai Buildings and structures completed in 1927 Clock towers in China