The Austro-Hungarian concession, with an extension of 108 hectares, was one of the minor concessions made by the Qing Dynasty to the victorious powers. This was due to the limited Austro-Hungarian participation in the international expeditionary force: four cruisers and 296 soldiers.[1] The concession bordered the Hai River in the west, across the bridge from Tianjin City, to the Jingshan Railway in the east, and Jinzhong River (now Shizilin Street, Hebei District), a tributary of the Haihe River to the north. Across the river is a century-old French building, Old Cathedral of Our Lady of Victories, in Hebei District. It is adjacent to Tianjin Italian Concession, which is also located in Hebei District.
Contrary to what was done by the other European powers, Austria-Hungary granted citizenship to all the local populations. The administration was entrusted to a council made up of local nobles, the imperial consul and the commander of the military garrison which included 40 sailors from the Austro-Hungarian Navy and 80 Chinese policemen called Shimbo. The two Austro-Hungarian representatives had the majority right in the council meetings. The juridical law applied in court was the Austro-Hungarian one.[2]
In the concession were built a theatre, spa, school, pawnshop, barracks, prison, hospital and cemetery. The relatively short presence, about 14 years, left traces of the Habsburg style still found today in that area of the city.
With the First World War, China entered the war alongside the Triple Entente against the Central Powers and immediately occupied the Austro-Hungarian and German concessions, declaring them revoked on 14 August 1917[citation needed].
At the end of the war, with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, two separate treaties were necessary to ratify the revocation. Austria renounced the rights on the concession on 10 September 1919 with the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Hungary renounced them on 4 June 1920 with the Treaty of Trianon. In June 1927, the concession was incorporated into the Italian concession following a series of clashes between opposing Chinese factions.[3]
The Austria-Hungarian Empire's trade with China itself was extremely limited, and the concession was located at the northernmost end of the Haihe River, which was not conducive to shipping. Therefore, the concession was not an important financial and trading area. However, the Austrian Concession was located between the old city and the Tianjin Railway Station. Soon after the concession was delimited, the Belgian Shichang Tram and Electric Company constructed a tram line from the east gate of the old city to the railway station, and at the same time rebuilt the east pontoon bridge into an iron bridge. Named Jintang Bridge (now Jintang Bridge in Hebei District), a commercial street with concentrated Chinese retail businesses was formed along the main road (now Jianguo Road in Hebei District) where trams passed.
