It was probably the first place you visited when you arrived in this city and chances are you have been here on numerous occasions ever since. Yet, can you answer these 2 questions?
#1 Where does the name of Shanghai’s sexy, signature waterfront – The Bund – come from?
#2 Can you name at least 20 among the total of 52 buildings of various architectural styles that the Bund houses?
Here’s a quick cheat – sheet for you!
#1 The word ‘bund’ means an embankment or an embanked quay. It comes from Persian word ‘band’ meaning an embankment, levee or dam (a cognate of English terms "bind", "bond" and "band", and the German word "Bund"). In fact, Mumbai’s former Apollo Bunder (now called Wellington Pier) and two other cities - Bandar Abbas in Iran and Banda Aceh in Indonesia - share the same etymology.
In the 19th century many Baghdadi Jews, including the prominent Baghdadi Sassoon Family (that we told you about a couple of months ago - click this link if you don't remember! http://www.culture-shock-tours.com/blog/fascinating-yet-little-known-shanghai-s-jewish-history) settled their businesses in Shanghai and other port cities in east Asia, and heavily built up their harbors. They named them after the bunds/levees in Baghdad along the Tigris.
There are numerous sites in India, China, and Japan that are called "bunds" (e.g., the Yokohama Bund). However, "The Bund", without qualification to location, usually refers to this 1.6 km stretch of embanked riverfront in Shanghai.
The Chinese name for the Bund - 外滩 Wàitān ('nga thae' in Shanghainese) – literally means "outer bank", referring to the Huangpu River.That's because this part of the riverfront was located farther downstream than the "inner bank" area adjacent to the old walled city of Shanghai.
#2 As we already mentioned at the beginning, The Bund houses 52 buildings. They are of various architectural styles, generally Eclecticism, but with some buildings displaying predominantly Romanesque Revival, Gothic Revival, Renaissance Revival, Baroque Revival, Neo-Classical or Beaux-Arts styles, and a number in Art Deco style.
From the south, the 20 main buildings are:
1.Asia Building (No. 1, The Bund), originally the McBain Building, housed the Shanghai offices of Royal Dutch Shell and Asiatic Petroleum Company.It was the tallest and one of the largest buildings in Shanghai upon its completion.
2.Shanghai Club (No. 2, The Bund) - Baroque Revival building. It was the principal social club for British nationals in Shanghai. Since 2010 the Waldorf-Astoria Shanghai Hotel.
3.Union Building (No. 3, The Bund), previously housed a number of insurance companies. It represents Neo-Renaissance style with a symmetrical facade, but with some Baroque style details.
4.Nissin Building (No. 5, The Bund), housed a Japanese shipping company.
Its facade contains both Japanese and Western elements and is completely covered in granite.
5.China Merchants Bank Building (No. 6, The Bund), housed the first Chinese-owned bank in China.
6.Great Northern Telegraph Building (No. 7, The Bund), housed Great Northern Telegraph Company. Site of the first telephone switch in Shanghai in 1882.
7.The HSBC Building (No. 12, The Bund), now used by the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, was once the Shanghai headquarters of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which failed to reach a deal with the Shanghai government to buy the building again in the 1990s, when the Shanghai government moved out of the building that they had used since the 1950s. The present building was completed in 1923. At the time, it was called "the most luxurious building between the Suez Canal and the Bering Strait". Its famous ceiling mosaics have been fully restored, and can be viewed inside the entrance hall.Represents Neo - Classical style.
8.The Customs House (No. 13, The Bund), was built in 1927 on the site of an earlier, traditional Chinese-style customs house. The clock was built in England and is an imitation of Big Ben. It remains the largest clock in Asia. The exterior follows a Greek-revival Neo-Classicist design.
9.China Bank of Communications Building (No. 14, The Bund), was the last building to be built on the Bund before the founding of the People's Republic. It now houses the Shanghai Council of Trade Unions and represents modern Art Deco style.
10.Russo-Chinese Bank Building (No. 15, The Bund) is now the Shanghai Gold Exchange.
11.Bank of Taiwan Building (No. 16, The Bund) is now the China Merchants Bank. Its architecture combines both Western and Japanese elements.
12.North China Daily News Building (No. 17, The Bund) housed the most influential English-language newspaper in Shanghai at the time. Today it houses AIA Insurance. It is a reinforced concrete structure with Baroque towers, Neoclassical pillars, and Renaissance relief sculpture.
13.Swatch Art Peace Hotel (No. 19, The Bund) - originally built as Palace hotel, the south building of The Peace Hotel. The exterior represents a Renaissance style.
14.Sassoon House (No. 20, The Bund), with the attached Cathay Hotel, was built by Sir Victor Sassoon. The builders followed a consistent art deco scheme, from exterior design to interior decor. It was, and still is today, famous for its jazz band in its cafe. The top floor originally housed Sassoon's private apartment. Today, it forms the other part of the Peace Hotel.
15.Bank of China Building (No. 23, The Bund) housed the headquarters of the Bank of China. The stunted appearance of the building is attributed to Sassoon's insistence that no other building on the Bund could rise higher than his.The overall outlook carries a traditional Chinese style.
16.Yokohama Specie Bank Building (No. 24, The Bund) housed the Japanese Yokohama Specie Bank.
17.Yangtze Insurance Building (No. 26, The Bund) today houses a Shanghai branch of the Agricultural Bank of China.
18.Jardine Matheson Building (No. 27, The Bund) housed the then-powerful Jardine Matheson company. Today it houses a Rolex store on the ground floor, offices, and the House of Roosevelt, a bar and restaurant.
19.Consulate-General of the United Kingdom (No. 33, The Bund) housed the Consulate-General of the United Kingdom and was built in the Renaissance Revival, The building has been renovated and in 2010 re-opened as No 1 Waitanyuan, a private dining facility for government. Part of the site has also been used to build the Peninsula Hotel Shanghai which opened in 2010.
20.Gutzlaff Signal Tower also known as the Bund Weather Tower, originally provided weather information to ships on the Huangpu River with the current structure dating from 1907.
