Gaoyou Tongxing Pawnshop

Gaoyou Pawnshop is located at No. 19 Renmin Road, north of Gaoyou City, also known as the North Gate Pawnshop, established in the early Qing Dynasty. The pawnshop building faces north and south, with a nearly square plan, about 60 meters long from east to west, about 55 meters deep from south to north, covering an area of about 3,300 square meters, and a building area of 2,700 square meters. The building is a traditional brick-wood structure with blue brick walls, small tile roofs, and hard mountain tops. Gaoyou Pawnshop adopts a courtyard layout. Gaoyou Pawnshop provides an important window for studying the special facilities functions of this special industry, and also provides physical materials for studying the pawn system and residential architecture in Jiangsu during the Qing Dynasty. On May 25, 2006, Gaoyou Pawnshop was announced by the State Council of the People's Republic of China as the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units. Gaoyou Pawnshop was established in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, with the name Tongxing, and was rumored to be the private property of the Qing Dynasty's powerful minister and arsenic. At that time, there were several pawnshops in Gaoyou City, and this pawnshop was the largest and longest-running. Because it was located outside the north gate of Gaoyou City, locals commonly referred to it as the North Pawnshop. After the fall of arsenic, it turned into a civilian pawnshop, and its owner changed several times. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Ma Shijie became the largest shareholder of the pawnshop, and later it was operated exclusively by He Zi.