Bund Scenic Spot - Photos by Tracy Sky Tours, Shanghai
The Bund, located on the banks of the Huangpu River in Huangpu District, Shanghai, also known as Outer Huangpu Beach, is a Chinese historical and cultural district. Since 1844 (the 24th year of the Qing Dynasty's Daoguang reign), the Bund area has been designated as a British concession, becoming a true reflection of Shanghai's ten mile foreign market and the starting point of the old Shanghai concession area and the entire modern city of Shanghai.
The Bund is 1.5 kilometers long, starting from Yan'an East Road in the south, ending at Garden Bridge of Shanghai on the Suzhou River in the north, facing the Huangpu River in the east, and the concentration of financial and foreign trade institutions in old Shanghai in the west. After Shanghai was established as a commercial port, foreign banks, commercial banks, associations, and newspapers began to gather here, and the Bund became the financial center of the country and even the Far East. In August 1943, the Bund was returned to the Shanghai Public Concession by the Wang puppet Nationalist government, ending the century long concession period. In 1945, it officially became known as Zhongshan East Road.
The Bund stands tall with 52 classical revival buildings of different styles, known as the Bund International Architecture Exhibition Group. It is an important historical site and representative building of modern and contemporary China, and one of the landmarks of Shanghai. In November 1996, the State Council of the People's Republic of China listed it as the fourth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.