The Bund: A Modern Urban Legend of the World Architecture Expo and the Huangpu River
Overview: The Century-Old Echo of the Far East's First Financial Street
The Bund, located on the banks of the Huangpu River in Huangpu District, Shanghai, stretches from Waibaidu Bridge in the north to East Jinling Road in the south, with a total length of about 1.5 kilometers. It is not only a city card of Shanghai but also an epic written in stone in China's modern history and architectural history. As a 'World Architecture Expo Group', the Bund gathers 52 modern buildings of various styles and is a core component of the UNESCO World Heritage 'Shanghai Bund Architecture Group', as well as a National Key Cultural Relic Protection Unit.
The historical status of the Bund is rooted in its unique role as the financial and diplomatic center of modern China. Since Shanghai opened as a treaty port in the mid-19th century, it quickly became the financial and trade hub of Western powers in the Far East, known as the 'Wall Street of the Far East'. The banks, customs houses, consulates, and clubs lining the river not only witnessed the miracle of Shanghai's rise from a small county town to an international metropolis but also encapsulated the humiliation, resistance, and innovation in China's modernization process.
Here is an overview of the Bund's core data:
- : West bank of the Huangpu River, from Waibaidu Bridge in the north to East Jinling Road in the south, about 1.5 kilometers long.
