When you picture a bank, you might think crystal-clear glass teller windows and discouragingly long lines. But in Shanghai, China’s financial center that can trace its history back to pre-Communist rule, those counters might be something entirely out of the ordinary.

Chinese netizens recently uploaded pictures on social media apparently showing a row of bank teller counters in Shanghai that looked strikingly similar to tombstones.

Xue Liyong, an advisory member of the Shanghai Municipal City Planning Commission, said that the bank in the picture was the Shanghai Joint Savings Society Building, founded in 1923. It was formed after a merger of four major northern Chinese banks: Yienyieh Commercial Bank, Kincheng Banking Corporation, China & South Sea Bank and Continental Bank.

The building was designed by renowned Hungarian-Slovak architect Ladislav Hudec, whose surviving work includes Shanghai’s American Club and the Huadong Hospital.

“In the past, staff and customers were separated by iron fences so that security could be guaranteed. There was only a certain degree of distance, but they were not completely isolated,” Xue said, advising netizens not to be influenced by online comments because many banks were still operating in older buildings.

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