The Finance Street — the Wall Street in North China

From the names of this 100-year-old street, one can know something about the history of Tianjin. Named as France Street by the French but Victorian Road by the English, the street was also called the “Central Street” due to its location at the center of the French and English concessions.

Today, it is known as “Jiefangbei Road” (literally Liberation North Road). In fact, for a hundred years, most people prefer the name “Finance Street”, which reveals its main function. Some even give it the appellation “Wall Street in the North of China”.

The 2,300-meter Finance Street, along with its financial buildings, has retained its original shape in spite of the elapse of 100 years’ time. The standing buildings are witnesses of the history of the finance street. Today, there are 26 permanent financial institutions on the street, including branches of seven Chinese banks like the People’s Bank of China and the Bank of China. The street is well known in China for the high concentration of financial institutions of Tianjin.

The history of this finance street dates back to the middle of the 19th century. In 1860, the British and French successively built roads and houses in their concessions in Tianjin, including a main road going through the concessions which later became the political and economic center in that area. Afterwards, many foreign banks, insurance companies, firms, and shipping companies came to establish their branches in Tianjin to engage in commercial trade.

The first foreign bank in Tianjin was established by HSBC in 1880 and opened in 1882. Around the end of the 19th century, more than ten foreign banks were established on the “Central Street” in English and French concessions. The concentration of foreign banks attracted large firms and insurance companies to develop their business here. Around the end of Qing Dynasty, new types of Chinese banks began to emerge and develop here. The street became famous as the financial center of North China before 1937.

After the liberation of Tianjin in January 1949, following the withdrawal of foreign banks, the People’s Bank of China, Tianjin Branch was established on Jiefangbei Road. From the reform and opening up in 1978, the Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China successively established their Tianjin branches here.

The buildings on the financial street have unique characteristics. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the banks here were mainly built with reinforced concrete, marbles, granite, and red bricks, in classical elegant and solemn styles with giant colonnades in front of the gates.

After the 1930s, concrete materials were mainly adopted, and the buildings were magnificent with modern functions. After the 1980s, high-rise buildings were built in modern metropolitan styles, which, equipped with multi-function equipment, marked further development of modern finance. In 2006, Tianjin Municipal Government made a plan to invest 14.5 billion yuan in the construction of Tianjin Finance Town with Jiefangbei Road as its axis.

In 2009, the century-old street took on a brand-new outlook. On the basis of the financial characteristics of the street, a “Finance Town” is under construction, which will be a modern service agglomeration area integrating finance, insurance, accounting, auditing, assessment, securities, consulting, law, mediation, and information. With a total investment of 26 billion yuan ($ 3.9 billion), the project is expected to be completed by 2020. With Jiefangbei Road Finance Street as its basis, Tianjin Finance Town extends to Haihe River to the east, Qufu Road to the south, Jianshe Road to the west, and Zhangzizhong Road to the north.

It mainly consists of three functional areas: financial transaction service zone, financial office zone, and business office and hotel service zone. The finance town covers an area of about 113 hectares, including new planned construction area of 1,300,000 square meters, and existent building reconstruction area of about 800,000 square meters.

In accordance with the function and composition requirements of the modern financial services center, Tianjin Financial Services Center and Financial Innovation Center will be established on the basis of exhibition, tourism, entertainment and other service facilities, with banking, insurance. securities, fund, and other traditional financial industries as the main part, and accounting, auditing, assessment, mediation, law, information, consulting and other modern financial services industries as the auxiliary. They will become centers for the management, business, pricing and information release of Tianjin’s financial industry.

After its completion in 2020, this thoroughfare of finance will create new glories as a landmark in the construction of Tianjin into an economic center in the north of China.