Seats of Power: Buildings on the Chang'an Avenue

[Nomenclature]

One may call Beijing's Chang'an Avenue 'China's main street'. Tiananmen, the political heart of the nation, is on Chang'an Avenue, so is Great Hall of the People and the CCP leadership compound Zhonganhai.

Here are some nice photos of those buildings with great political significance collected by a poster on the Gaoloumi forum. After reading this you probably will know more about those often mysterious buildings on the Chang'an Avenue than many Beijing residents.

Xinhua (New China) Gate, leading to the Zhongnanhai leadership compound, headquarters to CCP and State Council (the Chinese cabinet). The land opposite Xinhua Gate is owned by PLA General Staff Department but there's no building on it, probably because it's politically unacceptable to have a building across the street facing the entrance to the leadership compound.

'August 1st Building', headquarter of Central Military Commission. Some may call it Chinese equivalent of Pentagon. The building next to it is the Military Museum. I went to the museum a few years back and was shocked at a huge picture of Jiang Zemin in the entrance hall along with that of Mao and Deng. Guess Jiang's really popular with the military.

People's Bank of China. China's central bank. According to wikipedia, it 'has more financial assets than any other single public finance institution in world history'.

Ministry of Public Security. Controls China's regular and 1.5 million men strong armed polices.

Ministry of Commerce.

People's Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece.

Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. One of the most powerful organs in the communist party, controls personnel appointments.

 

[Nomenclature]

Chang'an Avenue is also home to many of China's major commercial banks.

Bank of China. Designed by I.M.Pei, one can see the similarity between this and the landmark BOC tower in Hong Kong.

Headquarter of ICBC, the world's largest and most profitable banking corporation.

China Merchants Bank

Headquarter of Agricultural Bank of China.

Headquarter of Minsheng Bank, China's largest privately-owned bank.

Headquarter of China Construction Bank. Its ten stories high glass entrance gate is a wonder to behold.

 

[Nomenclature]

Chinese posters here can read
³¤°²½Ö½¨Öþ - ±±¾© - »ª±±µØÇø - ¸ßÂ¥ÃÔÂÛ̳
Lots of good comments on architecture.

 

[patentneer]

Well Done China!

 

[Huan]

Interesting buildings. ^^^

 

[Alpha_Fox]

Why are all the major bank's HQ located in Beijing?
I thought Shanghai or Shenzhen where the financial centers?

Still nice summary, are you going to do Hall of the People and National museum too?

 

[rcrmj]

Why are all the major bank's HQ located in Beijing?
I thought Shanghai or Shenzhen where the financial centers?

Still nice summary, are you going to do Hall of the People and National museum too?

shanghai and shenzhen are mostly internationally, whereas losts chinese locaol companies choose beijing as their HQ

 

[oct605032048]

Why are all the major bank's HQ located in Beijing?
I thought Shanghai or Shenzhen where the financial centers?

Still nice summary, are you going to do Hall of the People and National museum too?

Because in BJ lies of the power and resources to determine the destiny of those 'centers'.

 

[Nomenclature]

shanghai and shenzhen are mostly internationally, whereas losts chinese locaol companies choose beijing as their HQ

Actually Beijing is more of an international center than Shenzhen, the Global Financial Centers Index for example classifies Beijing as a 'Global Specialist' and Shenzhen as a 'Transnational Specialist'.

The biggest problem Beijing has is, of course, its lack of a stock exchange. In fact Beijing and Geneva are the only two cities among the GFCI top 20 financial centers that do not have a stock exchange.

Hopefully recent rumors about the plan to open an OTC market in Beijing and develop it into a full-fledged stock exchange can prove to be true. With their remaining leaders out of power in the next government, the Shanghai Clique may soon be unable to employ their political influences to prevent Beijing from competing with Shanghai.

 

[casual]

hehe, my grandparents live on that street.

and to be honest, all those government buildings are pretty crappy looking now compared to the other new buildings around them.

oh, and i don't think i've ever seen sky that blue or streets that empty in beijing before lol

 

[oct605032048]

Among which gonganbu's building looks most niubi.

 

[TEXAS BATTLESTAR]

Chang'an Avenue is also home to many of China's major commercial banks.

Bank of China. Designed by I.M.Pei, one can see the similarity between this and the landmark BOC tower in Hong Kong.

Headquarter of ICBC, the world's largest and most profitable banking corporation.

China Merchants Bank

Headquarter of Agricultural Bank of China.

Headquarter of Minsheng Bank, China's largest privately-owned bank.

Headquarter of China Construction Bank. Its ten stories high glass entrance gate is a wonder to behold.

Thanks for sharing the pics and informations on each building. Do have any pics of the newly renovated National Museum of China?

 

[Nomenclature]

Among which gonganbu's building looks most niubi.

It's also the headquarters of MSS, China's intelligence agency. I think gongan (public security) and guoan (state security) always share the same headquarters. It certainly is a very imposing building

 

[Nomenclature]

Thanks for sharing the pics and informations on each building. Do have any pics of the newly renovated National Museum of China?

The National Museum's exterior doesn't look very different after the renovation. Inside of course is different but now it's rather empty.









All photos courtesy of 中冀日新@gaoloummi. ¹ú¼Ò²©Îï¹Ý¡ª¡ªãóãó´ó¹ú ÆøÊƻֺê - ±±¾© - ¸ßÂ¥ÃÔÂÛ̳