China Bank building restoration and museum

Last Saturday, July 16, our friend at UPSE Alumni Association (UPSEAA), Alex Escucha, a retired SVP of China Banking Corp. (CBC), invited me and a number of UPSEAAns to a tour of the renovated CBC Business Center in Binondo, Manila. Binondo is also known as the "world's oldest Chinatown." 

CBC was formed in 1920 and the building was built in 1922-1924. CBC celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2020 and Alex was the Chairman of the bank's Centennial Committee. Alex is also a fellow Ilongo, he is from Iloilo while I am from the neighbor island Negros Occidental.

Alex gave us these two papers, a big pamphlet of the restoration project, and a special edition of BizNews Asia where CBC and its leaders, selected clients, were featured. The photo of the restored building is impressive, very good lighting with a cloudless early evening sky as background. It looks like one of those old classic buildings in Europe financial districts. Very talented photographer to make this photo.

Alex doing the basic lecture about the bank's history from the 1920s to the restoration project in 2018 in time for the centennial celebration. The big room where the briefing was conducted is the restored “banking hall” with high ceiling restored. Bright, well-lighted and wide, the column-posts appear like long solid rounded marbles.

Our group photo after his basic lecture. Alex standing in the middle with the women.  I'm the leftmost standing with the men. Notice the three large glasses with stained archi designs, cool.

At the museum, 4th floor of the building, former Executive offices. Alex explained the old trading routes in East Asia, where the founders of CBC came from -- Dee C. Chuan came from Fujian, now called Fukien.

Another group photo at the steel retrofit with shock absorber rubber damper made by Sumitomo. Portrain of Mr. Dee, the founder at the background. Alex is sometimes called Alex Escu-chua, hehe. Standing at the back, 3rd from left is Jack Teotico, Past President of UPSEAA and beside him, 4th from left is Jeffrey Ng, current President of UPSEAA. Directly in front of Jeff is Ronee Juanengo, also a Past President of the Association.

At the museum, I was amused by thse old steel money-counting and adding machines aside from the classic abacus. 

And these Batman-style old cars in the 1920s, American colonial period. That time, five- or seven-storey buildings were already considered "skyscrapers".

Alex's tour lasted for nearly three hours. After that we went to Grand Cafe 1919, it used to be the Binondo office of Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp. built in 1919, hence Cafe 1919. Just one block away from CBC and have nice yummy food.

Additional readings here:

(1) 400+ pages centennial book digital copy, https://www.chinabank.ph/100years/

(2) China Bank's centennial book

By Stephen CuUnjieng. January 28, 2022

https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/01/28/opinion/columns/china-banks-centennial-book/1830886

(3) China Bank Binondo building restoration: A champion of heritage resiliency
Rosette Adel   April 15, 2022 | 2:30pm
https://www.philstar.com//headlines/2022/04/13/2174331/china-bank-binondo-building-restoration-champion-heritage-resiliency

(4) FB post by Augusto Lozada Toledo II, May 1, 2022
https://www.facebook.com/100007541109001/posts/3179728295621843/  

(5) Binondo rising
by Jaime Laya June 13, 2022, 12:05 AM
https://mb.com.ph/2022/06/13/binondo-rising/.

I have no deposit account or loan with CBC. But I have deposit account with China Bank Savings (CBS), their subsidiary for MSMEs. CBS VP Jo Fernandez invited me to speak at one of their lectures during the lockdown, I opened an account with them and my honorarium was directly deposited there.

Thanks again for the tour, Alex. Appreciated it.