Oct 30 2019

Tianjin Bank 天津官银号


Dongmalu (East Road), Nankai
天津市南开区东马路
Tianjin

A woman dances to the music alone. More dancers nearby.

Tianjin Official Bank was created at the beginning of the twentieth century by Zhou Xuexi, to compete with the foreign financial institutions. It was located at northeast corner of the old town (zh wiki北马路东端南侧三义庙处), and opened for business in 1902, changed name to Zhili Bank 直隶省银行 in 1913; closed in 1928 and the building was ruined. After 1949, Bank of China used its site. In 2004, the current replica was built next to TJ Ancient Cultural Street (古文化街) on Huanghe Road, in Nankai district. There are many traffic police stations in the city.

  

It doesn’t seem to have an exact address but is in the corner of Dongmalu (East Road) and Beimalu (North Road). The original location of the Bank is the corner across street – the corner of Tianlong Building天隆大厦那个角. My next stop was the General Mint.


The following is from iFeng.com on 2011.1.02:

作为历史区片地名的


Oct 30 2019

Huaxin Street 华新街

After the Mint, we went eastward on the Shuichan Front Street 水产前街 and stopped at the junction of Huaxin St, which is named after Zhou Xuexi’s Huaxin Textile Factory in the area. 


A few minutes walk up north is 宁园 Ningyuan Park (also called Beining Park 北宁公园). The site of the park was the former Plantation of the late Qing Dynasty which was established by Zhou Xuexi in 1906.  


Oct 30 2019

Tianjin Museum 天津博物馆


62 Pingjiang Rd, Hexi
Tianjin, China

It was opened in 2008 within the Tianjin Cultural Center 天津市文化中心, which is centered on a man made pound. The locals aren’t too happy about the project because they took away a youth activity center or playground. 

The museum has 金石书香沁后人 周叔弢捐献文物与古籍特展 exhibit since Sept 29, displaying the rare books and collectibles donated by Zhou Shutao. Zhou was an able entrepreneur and top rare book collector in the country. Over the years, he had donated portion of his holdings to this museum and National Library in Beijing.  The past Zhou’s exhibits and lectures at TJ Museum:


Oct 30 2019

Changde Dao in 2019


21 Changde Dao
Tianjin, China

We jumped from Zhou Xuexi’s former residence to my former residence – well, I called it home for a couple of years, after the lunch. It’s a short walk, southwest 900 meters away.

  

Chongqing Dao and the neighborhood of Five Great Avenues 天津五大道…


Oct 30 2019

Yue Yuan Beer House 粤园


3 Aomen Rd, Heping, 澳门路3号
Tianjin, China

Don’t be fooled by the name, it’s a Thai restaurant. Cozy and pretty cute. We had lunch there when visiting Zhou’s former residence – which is on the ground floor of the building. The food n service are ok, above average.

   


Oct 30 2019

Zhou Xuexi’s old residence


Macau Road 澳门路
Tianjin, China

From the Museum, we drove to Aomen Lu from Luoyang Road 洛阳道, visited Zhou Xuexi’s former home, a row of red brick buildings – 900 meters NE of Changde Dao. Zhou had four buildings but many had been demolished.

It’s built in 1915 and Zhou lived here for 30 some years. Zhou passed away in 1947 in Beijing where he also maintained homes.

At the curb of Luoyang and Aomen, there is a street vendor selling veggies. A popular restaurant 粤园 operates on the ground level. From the name I’d think it’s a Cantonese but it’s Thai.

    


Oct 30 2019

Chongqing Dao 重庆道 

One of the Five Great Avenues 天津五大道 in Tianjin, China. In the old times, east of Hebei Road was called Cambridge Road 河北路以东原为剑桥道 and west of Hebei was Edinburgh Road  河北路以西为原爱丁堡道.


Oct 30 2019

TJ General Mint 造币总厂


137 Zhongshan Road 中山路
Tianjin

This is the original site of the General Mint of Feudal Chinese Ministry of Revenue, founded by Zhou Xuexi after Boxer Uprising. It’s on the verge to be demolished, even it’s a registered historical relic. A few concerned people are rallying all they could to stop it.

Having just passed by the Ancient Culture Street, which is a fake – newly built, I wonder why don’t they preserve the General Mint instead? The area is large with so many historical structures …

To the brave few who are trying to preserve it: good luck and be the force with you.

The site is massive, bigger than the Zhongshan Park (中山公园), which is located to its northeast corner. And is on the verge to be demolished. Notice of Compensation and Resettlement Plan for Non-residential Houses 非住宅房屋征收补偿安置方案 is prominent posted – to the upper left corner of the photo below.

  

The small path (it’s called Yuwei Road 宇纬路 on the nw side of the Zhongshan Road) to the right of the facade (inscribed by Wu Dingchang 吴鼎昌, an industrialist) goes in. On the right side, going straight is a small community with a security booth and to the right is where we want to visit – the old mint.

… beautiful courtyards and houses, although they’re all dilapidated …

A gentleman with raspy voice came out of his house and we stuck up a lengthy conversation. He proudly pointed to his windows “they’re so unique, you don’t see them nowadays any more …”. He’s from (a part of) 254 army hospital. After a little chatting, he invited us in. The old house has high ceiling and many details are intact.


Then the raspy voice led us to the two-story grey structure, #78. “It’s their office building,” he said.

It’s vacant now. Above the door, the engraving is barely visible “化学室” Chemistry Room. “There used to be a 鹤 crane but was smashed.

To the left side building, there is a room, probably added recently, long after 1976. Apparently a family is living there and they used the thin space between the building and wall as their kitchen.

 

cars or carts, pedaled and gasoline fueled …

I like doors and windows, obviously …

… oh … the undies in the courtyards …


Oct 29 2019

The disappearing history

Looking for old information, I went to Xicheng West End District Archives.

To remake their cities (and perhaps to show their achievements while in the office …) and aggressive developers, old historical remnants are being demolished, fast.

Qingdao: the 18 meter high fire watchtower on GuanXiang Road (望火楼; 1905-2009) on the western edge of the old observatory, and the train station (1901-1991) – the current train station is moved back 15 meters.

Ji’Nan: the old train station (1912-1992; by German architect 赫尔曼舍尔) and the two story commercial building (八卦楼; 1914-97).

 


Oct 28 2019

Trained in China, 2019


Trains in China … This year, the