The Bund 外滩

About The Bund

Historic banks, trading houses and hotels face the modern towers of Lujiazui across the water.

Its buildings use a range of European architectural languages, including neoclassical and Art Deco forms. The riverfront promenade gives enough distance to read their façades as a group. A northward sequence toward Waibaidu Bridge also shows how the Huangpu frontage meets Suzhou Creek, while the road and embankment reveal later changes to the working waterfront.

After Shanghai opened as a treaty port, the Bund's buildings developed in three phases. The first ran to the late nineteenth century, beginning with a two-storey building erected by Jardine Matheson (怡和洋行) in 1843 in a brick-and-timber colonial verandah style; by 1849 eleven trading houses had built similar premises, most later rebuilt in Renaissance-revival styles in the 1860s-1880s. Only the former British Consulate-General survives from this phase.

From the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth, rising land prices and the introduction of cement led to the reconstruction of nearly half the row in reinforced concrete, three to six storeys high, in an eclectic style; ten such buildings survive, including the former Palace Hotel (汇中饭店大楼), which installed China's first elevator. In the 1920s-1930s a further phase produced larger, early-modernist high-rises, among them Sassoon House (沙逊大厦), the Bank of China Building (中国银行大楼) and Broadway Mansions (百老汇大厦).

The Customs House (江海关大楼), topped by a clock tower, was rebuilt in Western style in 1891, in a church-like style in 1893, and again in 1927. On 20 November 1996 the State Council listed the Shanghai Bund architectural complex, comprising 27 buildings, as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位).

What to look for

• Historic commercial façades preserve the treaty-port riverfront’s architectural variety.
• The embankment faces Lujiazui and meets Suzhou Creek near Waibaidu Bridge.

Location & getting there

Getting to The Bund

Approach East Zhongshan No. 1 Road on the Huangpu’s western bank. Use a named point such as Nanjing East Road or the Waibaidu Bridge end to choose where to join the promenade.