Wing On - Wing On in Shanghai

Wing On in Shanghai

Wing On also had a branch in Shanghai. The Shanghai branch was opened in 1918 on Nanking Road (today's Nanjing Road), and was at the time one of the "big four" department stores of Shanghai. The store occupied two prominent buildings. The distinctive original building stood opposite from the (then) Sincere Department Store. An extension was built next to it in the 1930s. After the Communist revolution in China (1949), the store was nationalised, traded under various names and no longer connected to Wong On in Hong Kong. In 2005, it resumed the Chinese version of the Wing On name (Chinese: 永安; pinyin: Yǒng'ān). However, the store is owned by a separate company to Wing On, called "Yongan Department Store Co Ltd", a state-owned company. This company does not use the "Wing On" name in its English translations. The exterior of the original store was restored to its appearance during the Wing On period. However, the interior has been drastically refurbished. The store has also changed its market orientation, focusing almost exclusively on clothing, with a small department in watches and other accessories.