Aware of Shanghai's huge tourism resources, world-famous travel agencies such as the American Express Travel Department and the Japanese Sightseeing Bureau began vying with each other for this growing market.

They were here not only to arrange overseas trips for some wealthy Chinese families, but also to take on domestic travel services for foreign tourists.

Dissatisfied with the government's laissez-faire attitude to these foreign visitors and their manipulation of this profitable national industry, Chen Guangfu, who was inspired by patriotism as the president of the Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank, decided to set up a wholly Chinese-owned travel agency to compete with foreign counterparts.

In the autumn of 1923, he established a Travel Department affiliated to his bank, similar to the setup at American Express.

In the first few years, the small department operated on a trial basis and opened only to those from "polite society" instead of to the wider populace, providing a comparatively limited business scope.

With its opening ceremony, held on June 1, 1927, the Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank travel department was formally registered as the China Travel Service.

Unfortunately, the average daily turnover in the next few months was too low to cover costs. This embarrassing situation provoked a series of complaints from the board of directors and Chen was obliged to make a thorough reshuffle.

With a total investment of US$50,000, the travel agency was separated from its parent company and had to take on the whole responsibility for its profit and loss from then on. Chen Xiangtao, once an official from the Shanghai Public Communications Bureau was assigned the post of general manager.

Thanks to the staff's strenuous efforts, the agency at last managed to make a profit.

The year 1931 was the heyday for the CTS, they won the right to deal in European train tickets for Chinese travelling overseas. In the same year CTS opened up more than 20 chain hostels around the country and its annual profits reached more than US$4 million.

The CTS halted its travel service during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937-45) but was unable to recover after liberation in 1949. It declared bankruptcy in July 1954 and retreated from the arena, but its epoch-making contribution to the Chinese Tourism Industry is still dwelt upon with great relish.

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