China Securities Museum opens in century-old Astor House Hotel
Dignitaries visit the opening of the China Securities Museum in Astor House Hotel near the Bund on Saturday. The museum features significant stock and bond certificates and recreations of scenes in the development of the exchange.
The China Securities Museum opened in Shanghai’s historic Astor House Hotel near the Bund at the weekend, the place where the Shanghai Stock Exchange came into existence in 1990.
Most of the museum collection is securities, bonds, funds and futures certificates along with items relevant to the banking and insurance industries.
Established by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the museum shows the development of stocks and futures since 1978, as well as earlier history dating back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
During trial operations the museum only receives group visits, booked in advance.
Visitors watch an exhibition about the former working condition of a trader at the Shanghai Stock Exchange at the newly unveiled China Securities Museum.
“China’s securities market has a relatively short history, so the collection is mainly documents, photos and other paper exhibits,” said Jiang Yang, president of the museum council.
“Key figures in the stock market’s development have been invited to narrate the stories behind the exhibits.”
The Shanghai stock exchange came into existence on December 19, 1990, with the trading center in Peacock Hall, the main banqueting hall of the hotel.
The site was also Shanghai’s first Western hotel. “It symbolizes how China has referenced the Western experience, combining it with its own national conditions to develop the capital market,” Jiang said.
An exhibition at the newly unveiled China Securities Museum restores the historic scene that former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping presents a 50-yuan stock certificate of Shanghai Feilo Acoustics Co, the first listed firm on the Chinese mainland, to John Phelan, then chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, on a visit to Beijing as a gift.
The scene at the former trading center has been recreated in the lobby and the Peacock Hall with models and exhibits. A stock trader in a yellow vest stands in the middle of the hall holding a telephone.
The first gong of the exchange is displayed along with a number of beepers, once popular for investors to check stock prices. An original stock certificate of Shanghai Feilo Acoustics Co, the first listed firm on the mainland, is also on show. In 1984, the company issued 10,000 shares at 50 yuan (US$7.3) per share.
Feilo remained largely unknown outside China until 1986, when a 50-yuan stock certificate of the company was given by former national leader Deng Xiaoping as a gift to John Phelan, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, on a visit to Beijing. Phelan then came to the Shanghai exchange to transfer ownership of the certificate.
The scene has been recreated with wax works of Deng and Phelan.
The scene at the former trading center has been recreated in the lobby and the Peacock Hall with models and exhibits. A stock trader in a yellow vest stands in the middle of the hall holding a telephone.
Other exhibitions include an introduction to stock exchanges across the world, especially the countries along the Belt and Road.
A central display on the second floor displays the stocks of the world’s 500 leading enterprises.
Another item on display is a handwritten certificate of China’s earliest stock, issued in 1881 by the Kaiping Mining Bureau, a private coal mine under the supervision of the Qing Dynasty government in Tangshan City of north China’s Hebei Province.
Multimedia interactive facilities allow visitors to experience the working conditions of equity traders at the stock exchange before it moved to its current site in the Pudong New Area in 1997.
“The exhibition clearly recalls the simple trading at the stock exchange 20 years ago,” said Zhuo Fumin, the chairman of V Star Capital, who was among the first visitors on Saturday.
“It is hard to imagine how far the capital market has developed since then,” he added.
The Astor House Hotel, previously known as Richard’s Hotel, was founded by the Richard family in 1846 on the Bund near Jinling Road E. It moved to its current location on Huangpu Road near the Waibaidu Bridge in 1857.
Workers prepare for the opening of the China Securities Museum at the city's century-old Astor House Hotel in Hongkou District last week.
