Lihua Building in Tianjin There is a landmark building on Jiefang North Road in Tianjin-Lihua Building. This building was built in 1939, invested by Belarusian adventurer Li Yapu and designed by French architect Mueller. It is 43 meters high, *** 1 1 floor, with convex plane, and forms a square courtyard with the east and west annex buildings, which is simple and generous, and * * * has the functions of both office buildings and apartments. At that time, it was listed as the three tall buildings in Tianjin together with Bohai Building and Zhongyuan Company Building (now department store). After the completion, men, women and children came to visit by tram, and Li Yapu became a household name. Li Yapu, a descendant of Belarusian aristocrats, was born in 1902. He/kloc-wandered from Vladivostok to Harbin at the age of 0/8 and came to Beijing after many twists and turns. Worked as a clerk in Liwei foreign firm in France, and was transferred to Tianjin Liwei foreign firm 1925. Warlords Wu, Zhang and Zhang Zongchang all bought German-made guns and ammunition in this foreign firm. Three years later, Li Yapu resigned from Liwei Foreign Firm, and with the support of watchmaker Sun Xiuyan, he founded Lihua Foreign Firm, specializing in Swiss watches and doing jewelry business. Lihua foreign firm opened in HSBC Building on Jiefang North Road, and rented a safe in HSBC to store jewelry. At that time, the social status of Belarusians was low. Li Yapu first entered Belgium, then transferred to Switzerland and became a Swiss national. Tianjin Lihua Mansion1933 In March, Li Yapu set up a joint venture with others to establish Lihua Savings Life Insurance Company, opened branches in Beijing and Tangshan, and also opened Lihua Lending Bank to engage in mortgage lending business of jewelry, diamonds and antiques. A rich family in Tianjin has a "night pearl", which is priceless. The sixth young master of this family was short of money, so he sold it in various jewelry stores, but no one dared to accept it. Finally, he found Li Yapu and paid 50 taels of gold. The "Night Pearl" became Li Yapu's private property. 1936, Li Yapu invested 200,000 yuan to buy the old house of Renji Foreign Firm, a British businessman, located in the middle street of the British Concession, and borrowed 600,000 yuan from the Catholic Chongde Hall as collateral, and began to demolish the old building and build a building called Lihua Building, which was an office building and apartment, and was one of the tallest buildings in Tianjin at that time. Li Yapu's business grew bigger and bigger, and he also invested in Zhili Printing Factory and Xintucheng Farm, bought 100 mu rice field in Gegu, bought several properties in Beijing and Beidaihe, and founded North China Ice Company. Li Yapu had a Huili stadium in the Italian concession in Tianjin. Warriors game was originally a new sport, and later it became a means of gambling. There are more than 20 athletes in Warriors Stadium. Spectators buy lottery tickets according to the number of players participating in the game, similar to the Jockey Club. If they buy thousands of dollars, if they win, they will get twice as many lottery tickets. If they lose, they will lose money. But no matter who wins or loses, Warriors Stadium holds 25% of the hits. Two years before the opening, Huili Stadium was crowded with people and had strong financial resources. Later, the uneven distribution of spoils among shareholders caused conflicts, which led to the closure of the stadium. 1943, Li Yapu joined hands with bank of tianjin comprador Wei, and invested 800,000 yuan to take over Huili Stadium, redecorating it and renaming it Hailai Stadium. Starting with eight games a day, business exploded again. A year later, Li Yapu acquired the shares of Weiwei and became a wholly-owned enterprise. At this point, he completed the accumulation of wealth and became one of the richest men in Tianjin, but he also began to decline. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Warrior Gymnasium was ordered to close because of gambling. Li Yapu colluded with the Japanese, and the materials needed by the general were transported to Lihua Warehouse and Lihua Building from Japanese Military Chamber of Commerce in Yongning Street, Nankai, Liu Zhuang Military Warehouse in Hexi, Beijing, Tianjin and Wanhe Company Warehouse. 1948, Tianjin stopped the free trading of gold, and Lihua foreign firm was semi-paralyzed. Li Yapu began to transfer his property overseas, put the gold and silver jewelry accumulated over the years into nine camphor boxes and shipped it to Switzerland by freighter. 1949, Li Yapu tried to steal Japanese materials from Lihua warehouse, but failed. Li Yapu's crime of stealing and selling enemy and puppet materials was exposed, and the Tianjin People's Court filed a case for investigation. 1952165438+129 October, the case of "concealing and stealing materials used by the Japanese army" headed by Li Yapu was heard. During the three-hour trial, Li Yapu tried his best to defend himself, but someone appeared in court to testify that the books and contracts of Lihua Company also showed signs of forgery or tampering, and the amount of materials exceeded the books by five times. With the witness, Li Yapu had to plead guilty. Zhang Jichuan, the presiding judge, finally pronounced that Li Yapu and others were guilty of concealing and stealing materials used by the Japanese army. Li Yapu, the principal offender, was sentenced to two and a half years' imprisonment and was deported after the execution period expired. All the materials used by the existing Japanese army were confiscated, and the stolen parts were recovered separately. 1In March, 954, Li Yapu left Tianjin and went to Hong Kong on the ship "Haru Jason", leaving a Lihua Building, which is still the landmark building of Jiefang North Road. (Text: He Yuxin) Lihua Building