"Dang Pu" (pawnshop), also known as "Dian Dang Hang", had for years been regarded as a shameful trade. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, pawnshops disappeared for a while, reopening again in Beijing in the 1990s.

In 1992, the pawnshops in Beijing, which had disappeared for more than 40 years, put up their signs again. Jinbao Pawnshop was known as "the No.1 pawnshop in Beijing". This pawnshop provided financial services for industrial and commercial enterprises, individual businesses, and individuals in the form of mortgage financing, and solved the short-term capital needs of enterprises or individuals by obtaining pawn loans through collateral. 

After the re-opening of Jinbao Pawnshop, several more pawnshops opened in Beijing, including Fuchang Pawnshop, Huaxia Pawnshop, and Boroto Pawnshop. However, in the first few years, the turnover of the pawn industry in Beijing was declining year by year, and some shops were barely breaking even.

At that time, the traditional pawning of gold and silver jewelry became a less important part of the business, while pawning houses and cars were starting to pick up and showed great prospects. As long as the customers had the full property rights of a car or a house, held complete relevant certificates and licenses, and had paid off any bank loans, they could pawn the car or the house. During the agreed pawning period, interest would be calculated on a monthly basis, with a monthly interest rate of 0.5 percent, and the pawnbroker would charge a comprehensive fee each month, equal to 4.5 percent of the pawn loan. Because of this, more than half of the pledges in the pawnshops are cars and houses.

Nowadays, more and more people have abandoned their old ideas and started to visit pawnshops. The pawnshop has now become the "safe box" and "Taobao shop" (a popular e-mall in China) in people's minds.

(Note: Content source is from Beijing Daily Client.)