Hankou Mercantile Bank

In 1865, the British firm Fadepu Construction Company built a three-story brick-and-wood structure at the corner of Dongting Street and Huachang Street (now Qingdao Road). This was the Hankou branch of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China—the first foreign bank building in Hankou. Local residents named it "Maigiali Bank" after John Mackellar, the bank's first Shanghai manager.

The building's design reflects the heavy summer heat of the Yangtze valley. The architects blended Renaissance style with South Asian colonial elements, wrapping all three floors in continuous arched verandas. Ten open arches run along each facade, allowing river breezes to cool the interior. On the upper floors, elegant vase-shaped balustrades line the walkways. The exterior walls feature rough-cast plaster marked by deep horizontal grooved divisions. Overhead, an iron-tiled roof meets the sky with red, square pyramidal corner towers that carry faint Gothic details. Along the eaves, carvers left stylized floral and scroll patterns, while carved moldings frame the arched windows.

Inside, the bank managed the wealth of the nineteenth-century tea trade. Clerks issued silver dollar coupons that circulated throughout Hankou and surrounding areas, and in 1911, the bank became the permanent chair of the Hankou Foreign Exchange Bank Association. The financial bustle ended in 1949 when the branch closed and its foreign staff departed. Today, the 2,275-square-meter building serves as office space, preserving its original wooden components while hosting a new generation of occupants. Designated as a Hubei Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit in 2008, it remains a testament to Hankou's early financial history.