Elegant Building Along Zhongyang Street 中央街 in Haerbin 哈尔滨
Zhongyang Street is truly a gem of a street for the more architecturally inclined people like me. I admire how they kept the old buildings in working order. Being Chinese, I suppose keeping a building a mere hundred years old should not be a problem, when you are used to keeping thousand year old buildings in tip-top shape. As far as pedestrian shopping streets is think this is one of the prettier ones I have seen. The buildings here all practically have the same style. All except for one rather prominent exception.
Imposing Bank of China Building Along Zhongyang Street 中央街 in Haerbin 哈尔滨
The Bank of China Building along Zhongyang Street rises above the low rise buildings of yesteryear. The large monolithic design of the buildings is a sharp contrast to the elegant design of the colonial era buildings. The Bank of China Buildings I have seen in the country and even outside all tend to be the same boring and intimidating presence wherever it is, okay, the one in Hong Kong doesn’t count. This reminds me of the Bank of China Buildings along the Bund in Shanghai where it stood tall among the old colonial style buildings. It really stands out but not in a positive way, I would probably call it an eyesore since it is so different from the surrounding buildings. I really wish they could enforce a style for these kinds of places, but maybe this was really something beyond the power of the local authorities.
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