This street records the vicissitudes of Tianjin in the past century, which can be seen from its name. The Frenchmen called it Grant France Road while the Englishmen called it Victoria Road. It was also called the Middle Street because it was located at the middle line of English and French settlements. Now, it is named as Jiefangbei Road. But in the past years, people liked to call it Financial Street because of its unique function. What is more, some people even called it as the “Wall Street” in North China.

After all the changes of the century, this 2,300meter-long financial street and most of the buildings here have maintained their former style. They recorded the magnificent history and witnessed the vicissitudes of this street. Today, there are still 26 permanent financial organizations, including Tianjin branches of seven Chinese-funded banks such as People’s Bank of China, which made it a concentration area of financial organizations in Tianjin and well-known in China.

As the concentration area in Tianjin and even North China, the history of this street could date back to the mid-19th century.

In 1860, England and France successively built roads and houses in their Tianjin settlements, and extended a main line of communication from French Bridge (Now the Jiefang Bridge) in French settlement to south to go through the two settlements. Then, it became the heartland as well as the political and economic center of the settlements.

Afterward, banks, insurance companies, business firms and steamship companies of other countries came to Tianjin to set up organizations and engaged in commercial activities. In 1880, the first foreign bank, Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank of England, set up its branch in Tianjin and started doing business in 1882.

From the end of 19th century to the beginning of 20th century, more than 10 foreign-funded banks were set up in the middle street of England and France settlements. Because of the concentration of foreign-funded banks, some big business firms and insurance companies strived to develop their business here.

At the end of Qing dynasty, Chinese new-style banks emerged and developed on this street, which had became a famous financial center in north of China before 1937.

After the liberation of Tianjin in January, 1949, foreign-funded banks pulled out of Tianjin successively and Tianjin branch of People’s Bank of China was set up on Jiefangbei Road. After the Third Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC, Bank of China, Agriculture Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China set up their Tianjin branches here.

The buildings in financial street are of special features. From the end of 19th century to the beginning of 20th century, most of the buildings here were made of reinforced concrete together with other materials like marble, granite and red brick. The building style was classical revival with huge porch pillars in front of the door. The modeling was magnificent and solemn; after the 1930s, most of the buildings were made of concretes and the shape was tall and straight with modern function; while after 1980s, high buildings of new-built bank reflect the style of big city and modern times with multi-functional settings. They symbolize the new development of modern financial industry.

In 2006, Tianjin government invested RMB 14.5 billion yuan and formulated a construction plan of Tianjin financial district with the Jiefangbei Road as the axis. The financial district covers 113 hectares, in which the new building occupies 1.3 million square meters and 800,000 square meters of old buildings have been rennovated. Infrastructures such as roads, pipelines and network were also completed. The old financial street is reviving.