HSBC Building, Neoclassical bank building on the Bund, Huangpu District, Shanghai, China

The HSBC Building at No. 12, the Bund, is a six-storey neo-classical block of granite over a steel lattice frame, its central section rising to seven storeys. Six Ionic columns span the second to fourth floors beneath a triangular pediment and a stone dome; three arched entrances open at street level, and gold Chinese characters sit above the middle door.

HSBC opened its Shanghai branch in 1865 at the Central Hotel on the Bund, then bought the Foreign Club at No. 12 for 60,000 taels of silver in 1874. The present building was designed by Palmer & Turner and built from 5 May 1921 to 23 June 1923, costing about 10 million silver dollars, roughly two years of the bank's profits. Occupied by the Yokohama Specie Bank during the war, it housed the Shanghai Municipal Government from 1955 to 1995, when SPD Bank took the lease.

Feng shui masters chose the timing and direction of the first excavation, and coins from around the world were buried in the foundations, with specially minted coins placed in dark recesses to ward off spirits. The octagonal entrance hall's mosaic murals depict eight cities where HSBC had branches, including Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, London and New York.

The building stands at No. 12, the Bund, south of the Customs House, in Huangpu District. The main entrance on the Bund front has three arched doorways; the bronze lions now standing there are 1997 replicas, while the originals are kept at the Shanghai Museum. The banking hall is a working bank branch, so visits are limited to public areas.

The two bronze lions at the entrance were cast in Frome, England, by J W Singer & Sons to a design by Henry Poole RA, and named after managers A G Stephen and G H Stitt. The Japanese cut them during the wartime occupation, and in 1966 they were moved to a warehouse of the Shanghai Comedy Troupe. The lions now in front of the building are 1997 replicas; the originals are in the Shanghai Museum, and the replicas keep the saw marks.