Banque de l'Indochine Building, French colonial bank building in Huangpu District, Shanghai, China.
The Banque de l'Indochine is a three-story banking building featuring classical architectural elements from the early modern era. The structure displays Ionic columns at its symmetrical facade and combines Renaissance and Baroque styles, standing approximately 22 meters tall.
The Banque de l'Indochine opened its Shanghai branch in 1899 in the French Concession. In 1907 it moved to 29 the Bund, a plot previously used by the Russo-Chinese Bank. The old building was demolished in 1911 and replaced by the present structure, completed in 1914. After France established the Vichy government in 1940, the branch stayed open; in 1956 the building was taken over and renamed Dongfang Dalou.
The bank's name survives in the Chinese form Dongfang Huili Yinhang Dalou, later shortened to Dongfang Dalou when the building was taken over in 1956. The ground floor's four large windows are framed as tall arches with steel glazing and sculpture above each one, a detail visible from the Bund pavement.
The building is located at 29 East Zhongshan Road and is accessible during daytime hours to view the restored entrance hall. Access is straightforward to find since it sits on a main street in central Huangpu.
The building is the only one on the Bund financed by French capital, and the only one with just three storeys. Its average floor height exceeds 7 metres, the highest on the Bund, which is why the 21.6-metre structure holds only three floors.
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