In 1896, a financial alliance between the Qing dynasty and Tsarist Russia was established on the Hankou riverfront as the first Sino-foreign joint-venture bank. This institution financed the lucrative tea trade along the Great Tea Road. By 1926, however, speculators at the bank's Shanghai and Harbin branches miscalculated the rising price of gold, resulting in a loss of five million pounds and forcing the bank to close. The building was soon taken over by the Nationalist government as the office of the Ministry of Finance. In September 1927, after the Central Bank was established, the building became its Hankou branch.

Designed by an unknown architect, the reinforced concrete structure rises four stories above a deep basement. At the corner of Yanjiang Avenue and Lihuangpi Road, a cubic tower anchors the neoclassical facade, balancing recessed loggias with solid masonry. Inside, a wide spiral staircase sweeps upward from the grand lobby, framed by dark carved wooden partition walls that once separated busy clerks from the noise of the port.

After the bank closed, these same rooms took on a new life. In December 1926, Soong Ching-ling moved into the second floor, where she lived and worked for over seven months. From this building, she led the national government's relocation to Wuhan, organized the recovery of the British concession, and directed political training programs for women as the revolutionary government fractured around her.

Today, the building serves as the Soong Ching-ling Memorial Hall in Hankou. Visitors can walk through her preserved bedroom and stand by the windows where she once watched the Yangtze River flow past. Designated as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit in 2019 as part of the "Hankou Modern Building Complex," the structure preserves both its architectural integrity and the layered memories of commerce, revolution, and diplomacy along the riverfront.