Historical background:

Hankou, Shanghai, and Tianjin are known as the three concession districts in modern Chinese history. And the Hankou concession, once carved up by five countries-the U.K., Germany, Russia, France, and Japan-is located by the river in Jiang'an District.

These exquisite European buildings feature great and imposing granite walls, solemnly flamboyant sloping red tile roofs, and resplendently exquisite red brick walls. The most spectacular scene is the neatly arranged colonnades in front of the buildings, which are upright, solemn, and magnificent.

In those years, most of the foreign buildings located in Hankou hosted the foreign financial institutions like the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, National City Bank of New York, Japan Yokohama Specie Bank, and more than 20 other overseas banks. Foreign people, European buildings, Western streets, and exotic lifestyles...the buildings in Hankou still remind people of this dazzling era.

A city district with such a variety of old European architecture is rare in China. One-third of the areas 142 historic buildings sit along the Hankou riverside. The gorgeous and elegant Classical, Gothic, Rococo, Baroque, and Victorian buildings are surely a fabulous view. As a comprehensive display of the Western architectural styles of the 19th century, this unique complex part of the city's cultural heritage.

In 1861, under the terms of the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin, Hankou was designated a treaty port, and its customs house, Hankou Customs,was located at its heart. Hankou Customs was mainly in charge of managing and supervising trading routines, inspecting inbound and outbound cargo, and collecting tariffs. From 1861 to 1898, the U.K., Germany, Russia, France, and Japan established their own concessions in Hankou; this area is known as "the concession area."

The concession area, which faces the Yangtze River and is adjacent to the Beijing-Hankou Railway, enjoys both convenient river and land transportation.

Although the concessions were separated from each other in administration, transportation had to be considered due to their proximity to each other. The British concession was set up first. Once all five concessions were established, ports and freight yard warehouses were opened up along the river, efforts were made to improve shipping, large public-service buildings were constructed on the main avenue, and embassies, banks, churches, hospitals, schools, hotels, and other public service buildings, as well as mansions, villas, flats were built on the business street located on the western side of the concession (now Zhongshan Avenue). This layout prevented clamor arousing from the business street and the dock area and protected the tranquility of the concession.

At that time, living in the concession with a circle of friends was a symbol of status. Common people living in the concession would cook borscht, bake toast, and fry pork chops at home.

Liu Qianding, an expert of Wuhan folklore and a folk relic protector, says these architectural complexes are a mark of time, for they reflect the urban development as well as the architectural style of Wuhan at that time.

List of historic architectural complexes in Hankou concession area

1. Site of the former Eighth Route Army Office

2. Wuhan Art Museum (former Hankou Kincheng Bank building)

3. Site of CPC Wuhan

4. Site of the CPC Political Bureau Members' Conference on Aug. 7, 1927

5. The former American Consulate

6. The former German Consulate

7. Deming Hotel, now known as Jianghan Hotel

8. The former Supervisory Government Office of Hankou Customs

9. Soong Ching-ling Memorial Residence

10. Lihuangpi Road Street Museum

11. The former Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation building

12. Site of the former New Fourth Army Headquarters