Bund of the Bund, Shanghai. The most interesting things about the Bund in Shanghai Changing your privacy settings
Another Chinese megaboy - Shanghai embankment Bund(Bund).
It is not as internationally famous as the Great Wall, but it is the number one attraction in Shanghai, eclipsing even the skyscrapers of Pudong. Which, by the way, are located exactly opposite, across the Huangpu River, and offer excellent views of them. We arrived at the Bund during restricted hours, at dusk, and watched as the lights turned on around us and the evening turned into night. Its history, if viewed from the bell tower of Chinese patriots, is very inconvenient - it is located on the territory of the former British settlement and is the most striking symbol of China’s colonial past. Once upon a time, in the first third of the 20th century, this place was the financial center not only of East Asia, but also of the Pacific region of the planet in general - then the flows were ruled mainly by English, Dutch and French newcomers. For this they dislike her very much.
But during Shanghai's colonial heyday, the most beautiful buildings were built here, many in the Art Deco style - this is what you should come here for. I thought it was very beautiful, and in China in general (in general) I have not seen a more beautiful urban ensemble than the Bund. Yes - she is truly stylish. And it was from this that the practice of urban conservation began in this region: the Chinese under Deng reasonably decided that since this is such an architectural pearl, and tourists come here in droves, then it would be right to prohibit building anything else here, or rebuilding it. Moreover, at that time Shanghai was rising again, and rapidly - but already as the financial capital of Big Red China.
So let's look, together with me, at this very Bund.
Bund of the Bund. Shanghai Customs Building (in the center, with turret and clock)
2. We go to the embankment, keeping as a guide the “Pearl of the East” tower, which is already on the other side of the Huangpu.
3. We cross a busy road along the river, and we are there. It's still light.
4. The promenade itself is located at a higher level, and the wall - the difference between the levels - is decorated with flowers.
5. Perhaps we should rise higher and join the floating people.
6. Embankment from a height of half a kilometer (). That's where we walk.
7. Unfortunately, I did not identify all the specific buildings there; so if you have anything to add, welcome in the comments.
8. A look back to where we were coming from.
9. The Huangpu River has a sharp bend here, so the embankment is not straight, it bends. Ahead is a white obelisk - a monument to the People's Heroes of the Revolution.
10. Turn the camera to the right. Opposite us is the Pudong skyscraper district, I previously showed it to you from above. Under construction, the tall building on the right is the Shanghai Tower, the third tallest skyscraper in the world (632).
12. And the final general plan, even more to the right: the embankment from here stretches for another kilometer and a half.
13. Shanghai Art Deco.
14. And the sky darkens, and Pudong becomes brighter with illumination.
15. The colonial past of the embankment is compensated by a large number of red national flags.
17. TV tower "Pearl of the East".
18. We go to the monument to the People's Heroes.
19. The intersection where the embankment ends and the highway goes away from the river.
20. It became completely dark...
21. Wooden platform for some kind of collective actions (stage for performances?).
22. We also attacked a Chinese wedding there.
23. What’s interesting is that the bride is not in white, but in red:)
24. Some fragments of the skyscraper district look like the scenery for a science fiction film:)
25. There are several balls in Pudong.
26. No expense is spared here on artistic lighting.
27. It’s completely dark.
28. Once again, a general view of the Bund from above.
29. Well, it’s time to finish... We leave for the Central Station, along the same street as in photo No. 2. A long journey to Harbin, in the snow, awaits us.
The Bund is the most famous place in Shanghai. Thousands of tourists visit these areas every day. Today we are talking about visiting these places.
Trip to Shanghai. Part 2
In one of the previous issues, I wrote about my trip to Shanghai. However, the obvious fact is that in one article it is impossible to describe everything that I want to say about visiting the largest city in China.
Arriving in the city center, which is the Nanjing Road area, you find yourself in a huge anthill with many tourists, merchants and local residents. All the main notable buildings in the area are located on this street. Coming out of the metro, the tourist heads towards the famous Bund.
Before you get there, you will pass many shops, restaurants, various eateries and entertainment venues. Having arrived in this area for the first time in my life, I was very interested and wanted to visit every establishment. Unfortunately, there was no time left for this, so we only went to a few of them.
M&M store
For example, we were able to visit a large M&M store, which is located right in the center of this street. This is a two-story building, where everything is imbued with the atmosphere of the famous sweets. A store that sells paraphernalia, an attraction that determines what color M&M you are. By the way, the color palette there is very diverse, and not just the yellow and red we are used to.
There is a huge wall in the room, where along its entire width there are special containers with candies of different colors. The wall is very wide and high, you can take a bag and pour yourself as much chocolate as you want. At the entrance to the store there are brand symbols with which tourists willingly took pictures. This store is unique in that you cannot find it in other cities in China, even in my beloved Beijing.
After visiting the brand boutique, we went to the main point of our visit that day, the embankment itself. This is exactly the place where it is easy to determine from photographs that they were taken in Shanghai; this is the most famous area of Shanghai. There were a lot of people that day and we had to crowd together with them. However, when you travel, you don’t pay any attention to such little things.
We walked along the embankment, and for the first time I saw with my own eyes this beauty, which I had previously only seen in pictures. At night, the Bund is especially beautiful and charming. We also took a ferry ticket, which cost a couple of yuan, and crossed to the other side. I was interested in the very fact of crossing the river on a ship. The trip takes about 10-15 minutes, but during this time you can enjoy all the beauty around.
Then we went to other places on the other side of the embankment, visiting a Chinese restaurant. And that was the end of our journey that day. To be continued... And the first part of my trip can be seen here.
And if you are going to go to study in China for the first time, but you know absolutely nothing about all the nuances of the trip, as well as survival skills on the spot, then you can order my book “How not to eat a panda in 8 steps,” where I detail I talk about all sorts of issues about life in China.
Vladimir Dergachev, photos by Anton Dergachev
Bund of the Bund on the Huangpu River Along with Chinatown, it is the historical center of Shanghai and is built up with buildings in the style of Western neoclassicism. During the Shanghai boom of the 1930s, it was the business and financial center of East Asia. During the era of foreign concessions, the embankment ended at the British Public Gardens, where a sign hung at the entrance: “No dogs or Chinese allowed.” Sooner or later this will come back to haunt not only the British. Obelisk illuminated in red light - "Monument to People's Heroes" in memory of those killed during the revolutionary struggle in China.
Shanghai Bund (Band) is located within the boundaries of the former international settlement along the Huangpu River. Across the river from the embankment is the new business district of Pudong. In Chinese, "Bai Tan" literally means "outer bank". The English word bund means "embankment". The Bund area is located north of Shanghai's old Chinatown, which was once surrounded by a stone wall.
The embankment is lined with dozens of European colonial buildings that once housed numerous banks and trading companies from Great Britain, France, the United States, Russia, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as British and Russian consulates.
The Bund of the Bund is often called the “museum of world architecture.” On a one and a half kilometer stretch of the embankment there are 52 buildings of various architectural styles, including classicism, Gothic, neoclassical and baroque. Shanghai has one of the richest collections of Art Deco (decorative arts) buildings in the world. Among the most famous buildings on the embankment are the Peace Hotel, the HSBC building and the Shanghai Customs Building. The Bund appears in the titles of several films set in Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s. These include the popular Hong Kong television series “Embankment” (1980) and its Chinese remake “Shanghai Embankment” (2007).
Old Shanghai to the left and Pudong to the right of the Hanpu River 
Entitled Pusi(literally “west of the Huangpu”), the urban areas of Shanghai located west of the Huangpu River are united. Puxi is home to 80% of Shanghai's residents. Despite the rapid development of the Pudong New Area, located on the other side of the Huangpu, Puxi still remains very much the economic and cultural center of Shanghai. Puxi is home to major shopping malls, popular nightlife streets, the Bund, the Shanghai Grand Theater and the Shanghai Museum.
Puxi is home to Shanghai Main Railway Station and the old Hongqiao Airport. With the opening of the new Pudong Airport, all international flights were transferred to it. Until the early 1990s, the only way to get from Pudong to Puxi and back was by ferry. Today they are connected by several tunnels and four large bridges, as well as the second line of the Shanghai metro. 
The Bund quarter (in Chinese - Bund) was once a swampy, unsuitable area for life along the banks of the Huangpu and Suzhou rivers. The authorities gave this territory under foreign concessions, which turned the area into an island of Western civilization. 
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In 1934, on the shores of Suzhou in the International Settlement, the tallest skyscraper in the Far East was erected - the Park Hotel with 23 floors and a height of 90 meters. It became the pinnacle of the skill of a foreign architect, Hungarian Laszlo Hudetz. The Park Hotel became national pride and a symbol of Shanghai Art Nouveau. The customer of the building was the Chinese financial company Savings Society, the general contractor was a Chinese company, and local materials were used in the finishing. 
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A modern view of the Band embankment from the observation deck of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, located in the Pudong district on the opposite bank of the Huangpu. 
In the center is the former headquarters building of the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation, on the right is the Shanghai Customs building, on the left is the tower of The Westin Bund Center Shanghai hotel. 
Former British bank HSBC building- the most monumental architectural structure of Shanghai Banda, commissioned by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1923. In the 20s it was the second largest bank building in the world. The building was called “the most luxurious between the Suez Canal and the Bering Strait”, it symbolized the dominant position of HSBC in the financial market of the Far East and Asia, the importance of Shanghai as “the gateway for foreign investment in a great country.” The HSBC Building, which now houses the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, previously served as the headquarters of HSBC (Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation or Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation). HSBC was founded by the British in 1865 in Hong Kong to finance trade between China and Europe. Today HSBC Holdings plc is one of the largest financial conglomerates in the world, the largest UK bank in terms of assets of $2.588 trillion. (2018) and market capitalization of $185.4 billion (08/12/2018) with 235 thousand employees. 
Shanghai Customs Building built in 1927 on the site of the previous department building, made in traditional Chinese style. The building inevitably attracts attention thanks to the clock tower (“Big Ding”), which plays the melody of the song “Aleet Vostok” every fifteen minutes. Originally, the clock on the tower used a set of bells, and the same melody as from the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster in London (Big Ben) echoed over the city every hour. All clocks in Shanghai were synchronized by this ringing. 
The British concession exercised control over the collection of customs duties on goods imported into the Shanghai port. The English management of Shanghai customs has always been perceived positively by foreigners as incorruptible. There is an old saying in the city: who owns the port, owns Shanghai. 
Majestic tower of The Westin Bund Center Shanghai, topped with a glittering crown, is located on the Bund, in the central business district of Shanghai. The Westin Bund Center Shanghai, one of Asia's 50 Best Hotels, offers a combination of modern comfort, impeccable service and traditional Chinese hospitality. 
View of the Bund embankment and the tower of The Westin Bund Center Shanghai during the day. 
The most famous shopping street, Nanjing (Nanjinglu), is called “the number one street in China”, one of the busiest in the world. It stretches from the Bund of the Bund for 14 km, its eastern part to People's Square is pedestrian, and there are many different shops and cafes along this stretch. As a result of large-scale restoration, the appearance of old Shanghai has been created here and the shopping Eldorado of China has been restored, where you can buy everything. 
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Bronze statue "Charging Bull" (1998) created by American sculptor of Italian origin Arturo Di Modica and located in the Financial District of New York near the New York Stock Exchange. The statue depicts a powerful, angry bull ready to attack, symbolizing aggressive financial optimism and prosperity. The charging bull is one of the most popular symbols of New York and Wall Street.
This statue was the first in a series of five bulls installed in different cities around the world, including Shanghai in 2010 (Bund Bull or Shanghai Bull). The bull as a symbol of market power was installed as part of the program to transform the city into a global financial center by 2020. The Shanghai bull weighs 6 tons versus 3.2 tons of the American one. So far, Shanghai modestly claims to be the second financial center in the world after New York.
Among financiers, “bulls” are usually called aggressive investors who buy a product in the hope that its value will increase in the future. In stock exchange terminology, they are opposed by “bears” - traders who bet on the market falling. 
The main advantages of the bull are especially interesting to consider 
Peace Hotel on the Shanghai embankment gained popularity in the 30s of the 20th century. Among its famous guests are the brilliant film actor and film director Charlie Chaplin, the outstanding playwright and writer Bernard Shaw, the legendary American boxer Muhammad Ali, as well as former US President Bill Clinton and his wife and many other famous personalities. After reconstruction, the hotel received a new name Fairmont Peace Hotel Shanghai and is owned by the Canadian company Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.
Back in 1926, Sir Victor Sassoon, a member of a famous Jewish family from Baghdad with enormous financial influence (he was called “the master of half of Shanghai”), invested in the construction of the first high-rise building on the banks of the Huangpu River. Construction was carried out on marshy soils; 1,600 piles were driven in to create a solid foundation. The building was called Sassoon House and was an A-shaped figure consisting of 13 floors along with a pyramidal tower. Jazz bands traditionally play in the local cafe. The top floor of the building originally housed Sassoon's personal apartments. 
At the northern end of the Bund, the Suzhouhe flows into the Huangpu. The river's name comes from the city of Suzhou in neighboring Jiangsu province, a former regional center before the rise of Shanghai. Suzhouhe flows from Taihu Lake and is 125 km long, of which 54 km is in the Shanghai administrative zone. The lands at the confluence of the Suzhou and Huangpu rivers were the property of Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), who converted to Catholicism, and his descendants, who donated part of the lands to the Catholic Church. After the Communists expelled the Kuomintang from Shanghai in 1949, most of the Jesuits left Shanghai for Macau or Manila, and church buildings and lands became state property. In the late 1990s, most of the factories were closed and the area became home to a shopping center and the Shanghai Conservatory.
The building of the Russian consulate in Shanghai (in the photo on the right there is a red roof near the bridge) in the historical center at the confluence of the Suzhouhe and Huangpu rivers. The consulate was closed in 1962 and remained closed during the Cultural Revolution, but was reopened in the late 1980s. The American consulate is located nearby, and on the opposite bank is the British consulate. 
Bund signal tower 36.8 meters high, it was originally intended to communicate weather information to ships on the Huangpu River and warn about typhoons. The first tower on the Bund was built by the French in 1865, and a new one was erected in 1907. The tower broadcast weather signals five times a day, and signaled emergency flags in the event of a typhoon or sudden inclement weather. Its work was stopped in 1956 and in the 90s the tower was moved to a new location and reconstructed. Currently there is a Bund history museum on the ground floor and a café on the second floor. 
Nowadays, Shanghai is once again becoming a meeting place between East and West. On the opposite bank of the Huangpu River from the old city, skyscrapers rose in a special district of Pudong, which became a symbol of Chinese renaissance.
Shanghai's most famous landmark is its Bund, whose name literally translates as “coastal shoal.” Local residents do not like to remember the colonial past of this place, so they also call this street Zhongshan Dong. Tourists in this area can see amazing structures of past centuries, located on one bank of the river, and on the other side of the Huangpu, contrasting modern skyscrapers and a television tower.
Time travel
The area in which the Bund (Shanghai) is located is called the Bund and means “pier at the dirty shore.” Europeans came up with this designation for this place, since there used to be an English settlement here, which later became international.
The first building here was erected in 1846 by a British company that opened its office in the area. After that, consulates, banks, and hotels, mostly in European style, began to actively line up along the embankment. Thus, by the end of the nineteenth century, the Bund had become a true financial center of East Asia.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Art Deco style came here, and many people, in order to admire the grandeur of these structures, sailed on excursions along the banks of the Huangpu, renting junks. Shanghai, the Bund of the Bund (50s) became a symbol of elegance and success of this time. After the communist revolution, many offices of trade organizations were closed, and hotels and clubs changed their original purpose.
In recent decades, in addition to all the historical buildings, a large number of buildings have been erected in a modern style and a wall has been built to prevent floods. It has a height of more than 750 meters, so it also serves as a wonderful place for exploring the surrounding sights.
Description
Currently, for the Chinese and visiting tourists, the Bund is an architectural symbol of the city. It is one and a half kilometers long and is located on the western bank of the Huangpu River.
In the southern part of this place there is a tourist marina where you can rent boats and boats for water trips. Some people say about the Bund that it is a small piece of Europe in the very center of China. There are buildings built in the ancient Greek style, as well as with Renaissance architecture.
At night, you can see hundreds of neon lights with the names of the world's most famous brands burning above the embankment, as well as brightly lit skyscrapers rising and a large variety of exotic plants and trees growing around all the buildings.
In order to preserve such a unique exhibition of world architectural heritage, construction in this area is strictly prohibited. Therefore, the Bund of the Bund does not change its historical appearance over the years, but only acquires attractiveness and spirituality.
Majestic buildings
Among the buildings located in this area, the most popular buildings are:
The Shanghai Foreign Trade Department is a massive structure erected in the twenties of the last century. Its distinctive features are Roman arcades and columns.
The Oriental Pearl TV Tower has the brightest lighting and consists of several spheres. This building was the first high-rise building in this area.
Shanghai World Financial Center - it is popular among tourists due to its unusual shape. That’s why people also call it a “bottle opener” among themselves.
The building of the Bank of the People's Republic of China, built in 1936 in the style of rational modernism. At the time it looked very interesting and unexpected. After this construction, many high-rise buildings with similar architecture began to appear.
Shanghai Customs Building, erected in 1927. It is recognizable due to the large clock located on its walls.
HSBC Bank is a luxurious, impressive building. It used to be the site of a municipality and is currently home to a financial institution in Pudong.
The Peace Hotel is considered one of the most popular buildings in the area. Once upon a time there was an office and apartment here for the so-called owner of half of Shanghai - Sir Ellis Sassoon. Tourists love to take pictures in front of this hotel.
What to see?
But the Bund of the Bund attracts not only architecture connoisseurs. There are many other local attractions located here. Among them, the most famous are the following:
A monument erected in honor of national heroes. It was installed at the end of the twentieth century and consists of three large rifles leaning towards each other.
A monument dedicated to the Shanghai Uprising of 1927. It is located in Huangpu Park and looks very powerful.
Bund of the Bund. Museum. The photographs in its galleries will tell the whole history of this area, as well as tell many interesting facts and details of its development.
In addition, there is a huge number of various shops located here.
It turns out that when foreigners lived in these places, they were not very respectful of the real owners of the country. This is evidenced by a sign hanging in the mid-nineteenth century at the entrance to Huangpu Park, on which it was written: “Chinese and dogs are prohibited from entering.”
Another interesting fact about this area is that a film by the famous director and screenwriter Steven Spielberg, entitled “Empire of the Sun,” was filmed here.
Tourist impressions
People who were lucky enough to visit this embankment speak extremely enthusiastically about it. They say that the Bund is especially beautiful in the evening, when it is illuminated by the lights of a huge metropolis. This place is filled with its own vibrant life and flavor.
Many argue that it is impossible to imagine Shanghai without this area. This embankment amazes with its grandeur, skyscrapers, colorful buildings and majestic structures. Therefore, even those tourists who have already visited it more than once, still, when coming to the capital of China, want to again get to this amazing place where the Bund is located. We will tell you how to get there further.
Directions
There is not a single metro station in this part of Shanghai. But there’s nothing wrong with that, since you can walk to the Bund at the Bund. The closest station to it is the station. Nanjing Road (eastern line), located at the intersection of the second and tenth metro lines of the capital. The exit from it leads to Nanjing street, from which you can immediately see a building with a large clock, in the direction of this building you need to go.
Anyone who has already seen the Bund of the Bund really considers it an island of European culture in the heart of the capital of China.
The Bund of the Bund or Shanghai Bund is a section of Sun Yat-sen Street, one part of which borders the former international settlement in the eastern part of Huangpu District. The name of the embankment also includes buildings and piers located on it and adjacent territories. On the opposite bank of the river is Shanghai's famous business district - Pudong.
Name
The name of the Bund in Shanghai is translated from Chinese as “outer bank”. You can often hear the second name of this architectural ensemble - bund. This English word means "quay" or "pier" in Asian countries. The word came into English from Hindi, meaning “shore”. In India, China and Japan there are a lot of places with this name, but only the proper name of Band is always called a section of the Shanghai embankment.
Story
Dozens of buildings owned by European states are concentrated on the territory of the Bund. Each of them houses banks and offices of various trading companies, including international ones. The British Consulate was once located here, and the Russian Consulate General is still located here.
The embankment area is located north of the old city. It began as a British settlement, but after a construction boom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became the main financial center of East Asia.
Architecture
The territory of the embankment stretches for more than one and a half thousand meters, along which there are more than fifty diverse buildings made in various architectural styles. Because of this diversity, the Bund in Shanghai is often called the “museum of world architecture.” By the way, Shanghai has a lot of Art Deco buildings.
The most notable buildings on the embankment include the Peace Hotel, the HSBC Building, and the Shanghai Customs Building. The hotel building is called the Sasoon Building, it was built by Sir Victor Sassoon, the so-called “master of half of Shanghai.” His personal apartments were located on the top floor of the building.
The second building houses the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and was once the headquarters of the Hong Kong-Shanghai Corporation. Builders of the building in 1923. At that time, this building became "the most luxurious building between the Bering Strait and the Suez Canal."
Shanghai Customs joined the architectural ensemble of the Bund in 1927.
The northern end of the territory is designated by the "Monument to the People's Heroes", erected in memory of those who died during the revolutionary struggle in China.
