Home >> Shanghai info >> The Bund

The Bund

The one side of the Huangpu River is like Manhattan. The other - The Bund - is pure history...a veritable museum of international architecture dating back over a hundred years. "Bund" derives from an Anglo-Indian word for an embankment along a muddy waterfront. This is where the first British company opened an office in 1846. It has been the epitome of elegance throughout its 100-year history.The Bund has just undergone a massive reconstruction, with all traffic being diverted underground, leaving the surface areas for landscaping into a massive park...where hordes of Shanghainese come out in the evening to enjoy the river sights. Buildings in Greek, Renaissance and Baroque styles can be viewed in the western part of the Bund. The Peace Hotel is one such famous landmark, and is the place where Noel Coward wrote the first draft of his play 'Private Lives'...which he later typed up in Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel.