海关大楼 — Local services in Shanghai

The Shanghai Customs House 外滩海关大楼 is the Bund’s grumpy old metronome, a 1927 beaux-arts slab of granite and ego that insists on reminding the entire city who used to be in charge. Its clock tower, nicknamed “Big Ching” in colonial days, still tolls every quarter hour with the persistence of an unpaid landlord banging on your door. Romantic? Not really. It was built less for beauty and more as a giant stone receipt, screaming, “Pay up!” to every ship that dared sail the Huangpu.

Part of the so-called 万国博览建筑群, this was never just an office, it was the empire’s cash register, the place where tariffs, duties, and a healthy dose of exploitation got tallied under the guise of global trade. Walk past it today and the façade is dignified, but behind those ionic columns lingers the ghost of ledgers, opium money, and clerks who probably dreamed in decimals.

Tourists stop to photograph the tower without realizing they’re posing in front of Shanghai’s historical cash cow, where colonial powers once siphoned wealth with bureaucratic precision. Darkly funny, then, that what was once the city’s most intimidating bill collector is now just another backdrop for wedding photos and influencer poses.

The Customs House is proof that even the world’s biggest tax office can eventually reinvent itself as a tourist attraction. A building once feared for bleeding wallets is now loved for filling...

江海关大楼，上海地理位置的标志点。 位于上海市中山东一路13号。目前该建筑由中华人民共和国上海海关使用。 江海关大厦建筑设计单位为公和洋行，设计师威尔逊，英国新金记祥号建筑公司签约承建，总体风格为希腊古典式和近代建筑相结合的折衷主义风格。 1893年建造的海关大楼是当时外滩最高建筑物。与南侧原汇丰银行大楼一起成为当时年代外滩建筑群的核心建筑之一。 上海海关大楼最著名的是它高耸的钟楼和大钟，1928年元旦敲响第一声，每一刻钟都会奏威斯敏斯特钟声。这座大钟楼，时为亚洲名列第一，世界名列第三。 2003年，官方的有关部门对于在外滩播放以前“殖民者的音乐”表示不满，...

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