General Post Office Building, Shanghai, Postal headquarters in Hongkou District, China

The General Post Office Building is a four-story U-shaped structure at 395 Tiandong Road, at the north end of the Sichuan Road Bridge on Suzhou Creek. Its main facades carry 19 Corinthian columns several stories high, and a Baroque clock tower with a 3-meter clock rises at the corner entrance. The building covers 25,294 square meters and has 187 rooms.

The building was constructed in 1924 after China joined the Universal Postal Union in 1914 and Shanghai became the nation's postal hub. It developed as a key processing center for the country's mail and communications network during this period of growth.

The clock tower's two bronze groups face east and south. The eastern group holds a locomotive, an aeroplane and a communications cable, standing for transport and communications. The southern group shows Hermes between Eros and Aphrodite, linking the post to human feeling. The originals were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution; a plaster cast secretly taken by an art student allowed the present copies to be recast.

The building stands at 395 Tiandong Road, at the north end of the Sichuan Road Bridge on the Suzhou Creek. The Shanghai Postal Museum, housed in the former courtyard and second-floor offices, has free admission. The retail post office still operates from the historic trading hall, now a fraction of its original size.

The foundations rest on a system of tanks filled and drained by water from Suzhou Creek as its level rose and fell, keeping the building stable and level. The clock tower's bronze groups were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution; a student had secretly taken plaster casts, and the statues were recast from them during later restoration.