Former Site of Lixing Trading Company Hankou Branch

In 1901, the French merchants G. Racine and G. Ackermann established a permanent anchor on Hankou’s River Street. Their firm, Lixing Trading Company, had expanded from Shanghai in 1895, driven by the global demand for local goods. Inside these walls, clerks managed shipments of pungent tung oil, coarse pig bristles, cowhide, and sesame, while importing European industrial metals, chemicals, and glass. This commercial hub launched the career of Liu Xinsheng, a local comprador who rose from these offices to become a prominent real estate tycoon.

The primary headquarters at 183 Yanjiang Avenue reflects a distinct Dutch-Southeast Asian colonial style. Designed by the German firm Sgues and built by Minsheng Construction, the three-story brick-and-wood structure rests on a cool basement. Masons laid the red and white exterior bricks in a precise "three stretchers and one header" pattern, creating a rhythmic facade beneath a heavy, red-tiled sloped roof. Visitors entering through the three-bay porch encounter a grand Doric colonnade. Above, continuous arched loggias shade the upper floors from the humid riverfront sun. Inside, the quiet rooms still preserve original French fireplaces and heavy rosewood doors, physical remnants of the building's early European occupants.

By 1921, rapid growth led the company to purchase land from the Catholic mission "Sandegang" on Dongting Street. Completed in 1923 by Helong Construction and designed by Sanyou Architects, this secondary four-story apartment building utilized dark, durable iron sand brick sourced from the Hanyang Iron Works. Its facade features symmetrical entrance porches supported by Ionic columns and suspended semi-circular balconies.

When Lixing sold the waterfront property to fund its expansion, the original building adapted to new roles. It housed the Sino-French Industrial Bank, the Grand Hotel, and the Belgian firm Credit Foncier d'Extreme-Orient. In 1935, the year Lixing ceased its Hankou operations, the building became the Hankow Hotel. Today, these structures stand as quiet observers of Hankou's mercantile transformation, their brickwork and timber holding the memories of global trade.