DISTANCE: 1.5km (1 mile)
TIME: A half-day
START: Huangpu Park
END: Gutzlaff Signal Tower
POINTS TO NOTE: To reach the starting point, take a taxi to Huangpu Park (Huangpu Gongyuan) or the metro to Nanjing East Road (Nanjing Dong Lu), then it’s about a 15-minute walk. This tour can be combined with the Behind the Bund route (for more information, click here) for an in-depth look at the area.
Site of the first foreign settlement in Shanghai, the fabled Bund was once home to the most important banks and trading companies in the Far East. Its domes and towers formed the first glimpse of the city for arrivals in the pre-flight age, and the Bund so defined Shanghai that the People’s Liberation Army marched its length when they entered the city in 1949. Even its name is a legacy of the British Empire, from the Hindi band (river embankment). However, it’s only foreigners who call this historic strip the Bund. For generations, locals have known it as Waitan (‘outer shore’); the prosaic name of the street itself is Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu (Zhongshan Road East, section one). For some Chinese, the Bund is a reminder of a shameful century of foreign domination (1843–1943), but this historic strip has now entered a new golden age as a prime dining, entertainment and shopping hub.
The Bund at night
iStockphoto
Northern Bund
Begin at Huangpu Park 1 [map] (Huangpu Gongyuan; 500 Zhongshan No. 1 Road; daily 6am–6pm; free), at the northern end of the Bund. The former Public Garden was built on reclaimed land and opened in 1886, and was famously closed to Chinese (other than nannies of foreign children). A Socialist Realist sculpture stands on the site of the old bandstand, and next to it rises the Monument to the People’s Heroes (Renmin Yingxiong Jinianbei) – that is, all those who fought to rid China of foreign imperialism.
Cross at the zebra crossing at the foot of Waibaidu Bridge to see the oldest buildings on the Bund, Nos. 33–53 Waitan Yuan 2 [map] (daily 9am–6pm). This recently renovated pair of British Colonial beauties was built in the 1870s and served as the British Consulate and the Consul’s residence until 1949. The buildings are closed to the public, but visitors can still enjoy the beautiful landscaped gardens.
Continue south past the neighbouring Peninsula Shanghai (Bandao Dajiudian). This newly-built Art Deco Revival hotel marks the return of the Kadoories, one of the great Sephardic Jewish families of old Shanghai, to the city where they made their fortune.
Three doors down is the House of Roosevelt (Luosifu) at No. 27, a grand granite-clad building built in 1922 as the Shanghai seat of Jardine Matheson & Co., the most important British trading company in the Far East. Today, it’s home to several restaurants and a private club. Be sure to take in the stunning view from the eighth floor of Shanghai old and new.
Another three doors down, the 1937 Bank of China 3 [map] (Zhongguo Yinhang), at No. 23, is the only Bund building with Chinese ornamentation, the only one designed by a Chinese architect (Lu Qianshou) and one of the city’s best examples of Chinese Art Deco architecture. It was from its vaults that Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek emptied the country’s gold reserves and shipped them to Taiwan as he prepared to abandon the mainland in 1949.
Morning exercises on the Bund
David Shen Kai/Apa Publications
The Peace Hotel
Right next door at No. 20 stands one of the legends of the Bund, the Fairmont Peace Hotel 4 [map] (Heping Fandian; www.fairmont.com), opened in 1929 as the luxurious Cathay Hotel by property tycoon Sir Victor Sassoon.
Enter on the Nanjing Road side and take the lift to the eighth floor, where some of what made the Cathay a legend remains: the vivid Art Deco ceilings and columns in the Dragon-Phoenix restaurant; the exquisite Lalique sconces lining the hallway to the magnificent ballroom. Charming Victor’s Café, see 1, on the ground floor, has top-notch people-watching seats by the windows.
Ornate details at the Peace Hotel
David Shen Kai/Apa Publications
Returning to the Bund, cross the street and pay your respects to the statue of Chen Yi, a Long Marcher and accomplished general who became Shanghai’s first post-liberation mayor. Mount the stairs to the riverside Bund Promenade and gaze at the futuristic Pudong skyline. This impressive concentration of skyscrapers includes three of the 10 tallest buildings in the world: the Shanghai Tower (632m/2,073ft, second-tallest), the World Financial Centre (492m/1,614ft, fourth-tallest) and Jinmao Tower (420m/1,377ft, 12th-tallest).
The ‘Bund Bull’ was unveiled in 2010
Dreamstime
Southern Bund
For a dramatic contrast, turn your attention back to the Bund, where you can see what was the tallest structure in the city in the early 20th century: the stately Edwardian red-and-white-brick Swatch Art Peace Hotel (Heping Huizhong Fandian), originally the Palace Hotel, at No.19. Its ornate wood-panelled and gilt-edged lobby is worth a look.
To its left stands Bund 18 (Waitan Shibahao), winner of a UNESCO award for the exemplary restoration of the former 1927 Chartered Bank of Australia, India and China. Today it’s home to Mr & Mrs Bund, named on S.Pellegrino’s ‘World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ list in 2013. The AIA Building (Youbang Baoxian Dasha) next door was built in 1923 and was originally the home of the North China Daily News.
Continue south along the promenade, heading towards the clock tower. To the tower’s right at No. 14 is the 1947 former Bank of Communications building, now the Shanghai Trade Union Bank – the last edifice to be completed on the Bund before the establishment of the PRC. Its stripped Gothic Art Deco design is unique among the mostly Neoclassical Bund buildings.
The Big Ching
Cross at the traffic lights back to the west side of the Bund and enter the Customs House 5 [map] (Laohaiguan; Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, lobby only), built in 1925. Its four-faced clock – ‘Big Ching’ to the British in the old days – still chimes ‘the East is Red’ every quarter-hour. A plaque to the right of the entrance commemorates the Communist employees of the Customs service who operated a clandestine radio here before the People’s Liberation Army took the city in May 1949. Enter the lobby (during working hours) to see the lovely ceiling mosaics.
The Shanghai Pudong Development Bank ceiling
David Shen Kai/Apa Publications
Custom House
David Shen Kai/Apa Publications
Next door at No. 12 is another Bund legend: the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank 6 [map] (Shanghai Pudong Fazhan Yinhang; Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, lobby only). When it was built in 1923 for the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, the architect’s instruction was to ‘dominate the Bund’. Enter its magnificent marble lobby and admire the spectacular ceiling, where mosaic panels depict eight cities in which the bank had branches in 1923.
Continue south to the Bund’s only Victorian edifice, No. 6 The Bund (Waitan Liu Hao), built in 1881. Directly next door is No. 5 The Bund (Waitan Wu Hao), built for the Nissin Kisen Kaisha Shipping Company in 1921.
Just a few doors down at No. 2 is perhaps the most legendary of all the Bund buildings: the former Shanghai Club, now the Waldorf Astoria Hotel 7 [map] (Shanghai Waitan Hua’erdaofu Jiudian; www.hilton.com). The old boys who controlled Shanghai made many business and political decisions within its burnished wood-and-leather confines. To the left as you enter the beautifully restored 1910 marble lobby (with original cage lift) is a faithful re-creation of the famous Long Bar. To the right, the Salon de Ville, see 2, is a gorgeous setting for tea.
Exit and cross the Bund again to visit the 1908 Gutzlaff Signal Tower 8 [map] (Waitan Xinhao Tai, 1 Zhongshan No. 2 Road; daily 9am–11pm), which once announced weather conditions using nautical flags flown from its pinnacle.
Food and Drink
1 Victor’s Café
Fairmont Peace Hotel, 20 Nanjing Road East; tel: 6321 6888; www.fairmont.com/peacehotel; $$
Victor’s recreates the retro glamour of a 1930s European café, but its real draw is the freshly baked pastries and the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Nanjing Road.
2 Salon de Ville
Waldorf Astoria Shanghai, No. 2 The Bund; tel: 6322 9988; www.waldorfastoriashanghai.com; daily 4pm–1am; $$$
Shanghai’s best traditional afternoon tea, in an old-school salon complete with live classical music and windows overlooking the Bund.