Tientsin Archives - Shanghailander

Early 20th century Shanghai counted a sizeable German population although it did not have a German concession, unlike in Tianjin. The German Consulate was proudly standing on the North Bund, next to the US and Japanese Consulate (both the former German and US Consulates long ago).

Like the British, the French, the Americans, the Japanese and others, Germans had their own club in Shanghai. It was named the Concordia Club like many German clubs and associations all over the World, the name of the Roman Goddess of harmony, unity and agreement. Concordia Club started to be created in the US and other locations a few years after the creation of the German Empire in 1871.

Letter to the Concordia Club (source stampauctionnetwork.com)

Although I did not find information about the creation or picture of the original Concordia Club in Shanghai, the Club building was rebuilt between 1904 and 1907, under the direction of German architects Becker & Baedecker. The same firm also designed the former German post office in Shanghai, the now disappeared Dehua Bank Beijing Branch in Beijing and the German house now part of the Shanghai Conservatory compound. The foundation stone for the new club building was laid by Prince Adalbert of Prussia on October 22, 1904.

Prinz Adalbert giving three hammer knocks for celebrating the start of construction of the Concordia Club in Shanghai

For the construction, the Concordia Club issued bonds of 100 Taels, for a total of 100.000 taels in July 1904.

Loan of 100 taels for the construction of the new Concordia Club (source hpwh.de)

The architecture style was German renaissance which was popular in Germany at the time.

View of the Shanghai Concordia Club (source Shanghailander collection)

It was located on 23 the Bund, between the Palace hotel and the British Consulate. The 6 storeys building stood out on the Bund, showing the might and power of the German Empire in Shanghai. It was also a few meters from the Monument dedicated to the Iltis, a German ship that sunk off the China coast in 1898.

Colorized postcard of the Concordia Club with the Palace Hotel on the left (source ebay.com)

The club was the center of the social life of the community, where German business people would gather for meeting. Although I did not find a reliable information, it seems that the Concordia Club was also open to (German) women, as opposed to the Shanghai Club, the British Club that was only open for men (but took a few foreigners). It was also a place where Germans in the city could meet and where formal events in the German community took place. The below picture shows an invitation for a masked ball on 29th February, signed by “Der Vorstand”, i.e. the committee (the year is probably 1908 or 1912). Cost of Supper was 3 dollars.

Invitation for a masked ball at the Concordia Club (source delcampe.com)

As with all Germany’s possessions abroad, the Shanghai Concordia Club was confiscated following the 1919 Versailles Treaty. It was then acquired by the Bank of China that used it as its headquarters in Shanghai. The image of the building was printed on some of the bank’s banknotes.

1926 Bank of China banknote with former Concordia Club (source moneypedia.de)

Construction on the Bund continued in the 1920s. The new Sassoon House, home of the Cathay hotel (today Peace Hotel) built next door in 1929 made it look particularly small. The former Concordia Club was demolished in the 1935 to make way for the new Bank of China tower on the Bund.

Concordia Club next to Cathay Hotel (source Shanghailander collection)

A Concordia Club was also built in Tianjin in 1907. As opposed to the Shanghai one the Tianjin Concordia Club building still stands.

Former Concordia Club Tianjin (source exploringtianjin.com)

For more information about clubs in Old Shanghai, go to post “Shanghai Club revival” and “Inside the Cercle Sportif Français“.

The story of express train abducted in Shandong province by local gangsters in the 1920s was the base for World famous 1932 Hollywood movie “Shanghai Express”. James Zimmerman’s “The Peking Express” is the true story of this incident and its consequences in China and beyond.

Although the whole journey was called the Pekin Express, the actual line ran only from Pukou (today part of Nanjing) to Tientsin (today Tianjin). Passengers from Shanghai would take a train from Shanghai Station (Today Shanghai railway station) for a few hours to Nanjing, and then cross the Yangze river on boats (the first bridge over the river lower was only built in 1968). After desembarking in Pukow, they would get into the train heading to Tsientsin (today Tianjin). In late 1922, the train was equiped with new luxury sleeping carriages, allowing an overnight journey of only 38 hours from Shanghai to Beijing, over 1435 kms through Zhejiang, Shandong and Henan Provinces.

Foreign hostages of the high luxury train counted several known figures in Shanghai including editor of Shanghai Weekly review JB Powell, as well a China press report Larry (Llyod) Lehrbas. Businessmen included Leon Friedman one of the leading car dealers in Shanghai, Lee Solomon the leading mahjong sets exporter to the West and Giuseppe D. Musso, an Italian lawyer wellknown in the community. Passengers included (wealthy) tourists, such Lucy Aldrich, sister in law of the Rockefeller family, as well as two US Army majors and their families and a number of interesting characters. They also included Marcel Berubé, a French man working for the Chinese Salt Administration in Tianjin.

Local bandits organised the train derailment in the early hours of th 6th May 1923. After having stolen all passengers properties and train amenities, they took the passengers hostage, trying the get concessions from the regional and national government. Although there was more than 100 hostages, the story focuses on the 28 foreigners who were travelling in first class, along with 2 Chinese citizens that staid with them. The book tells the story of the robbery, the captivity of the hostages as well as the escape of some of them. It also tell about the supporting effort, notably by the Shanghai foreign community, lead by Carl Crow and the mediation efforts until the release of the last prisoners about a month later.

James Zimmerman has lived in Beijing for 30 years, and has done an amazing research in the topic. Many of the hostages wrote notes about their captivity, sometimes publishing books or articles. Zimmerman has definitely read most of those books as well as been in touch with many families of the hostages, findind resources that had not been used before. The whole incident is told in great details, with recurring quotations from all the journals writen by the hostages. The information content is very dense, but using the voices and quotation from the actual people make the book an easy read. James Zimmerman has also explored the area where the whole incident took place in Shandong province and gives a lot of important information about the location and landscape of the area. This makes the book an easy read, as well as a strong source of information for people knowledgeable about Old Shanghai.