Shanghai | The Bund

Shanghai's 'Bund' Financial District

Shanghai's Bund, or "embankment" is a one-mile-long historic district that is situated on the western bank of the Huangpu River. During the early 1800s, the Bund district was a predominantly British settlement on the northern outskirts of the ancient walled-city of Shanghai, and in 1854 the British district was merged with the American, and other foreign concessions to form the 'Shanghai International Settlement.'

During the late 1800s to early 1900s, the Shanghai International Settlement was a major trading and financial center, occupied by mainly by foreign businessmen and expats from America, Australia, Britain, Denmark, Japan, and New Zealand. Their 'Western' influence is clearly represented in the architectural style of the area. Even today, that European architectural influence is seen in the modern townhouses springing up by the thousands in Shanghai's outlying suburbs.

The Bund's Architecture

The Bund has a diverse mixture of European architectural styles ranging from the neo-classical Shanghai Club (aka "British Men's Club") and HSBC Building ('Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation'), to the Baroque Neo-Renaissance Union Building, or the Greek-revival Customs House, which was destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Government, in 1860.

The Renaissance styled Sassoon House with its distinctive pyramidal-shaped copper roof, was built in the 1920s by Sir Victor Sassoon, a British Sephardic Jew who was a major financier during the heyday of the Shanghai International Settlement.

Shanghai International Settlement

The foreign concessions of the 'Shanghai International Settlement' were governed by the 'Shanghai Municipal Council,' or 'SMC.' Although the Settlement was not a 'possession' of the British Empire, it did have political autonomy from China, and maintained its own volunteer army corps, and police force.

By the late 1930s, there were over 1 million ethnic Chinese living within the Shanghai International Settlement, looking for economic opportunities, and/or fleeing the civil strife of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Towards the end of the 1930s, many Jewish refugees who were escaping the Nazis, found a safe haven in Shanghai.

In 1941, the Japanese Army entered and occupied the greater city of Shanghai, and by January of 1943, under the newly established pro-Japanese Wang Jingwei Government, the Shanghai International Settlement was abolished. During this period, the Shanghai Municipal Council, now under majority Japanese control, was disbanded, and all foreign nationals with passports from the 'Allied' countries were interned.

In February of 1943, the Settlement was formally returned to the Republic of China, under the 'Sino-British Friendship Treaty,' between Britain and the Kuomintang Nationalist Party's (KMT) leader Chiang Kai-shek. Under the KMT, the Bund continued to be a financial center until the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong, was victorious in defeating Nationalist resistance, bringing an end to the 'Chinese civil war' in 1949.

By late 1949, most western interests had evacuated from Shanghai's Bund, and under the communist 'People's Republic of China,' or PRC the district's bank buildings, clubs, and apartments were confiscated, and converted to government use, and the area began to decay.

Under the economic reforms of the 1980s, the Bund district has seen a total revitalization of its status as Shanghai's financial center, but it is now facing stiff competition for that title from neighboring Pudong.

The Bund's well-preserved architectural style provides an interesting juxtaposition to the modern buildings that surround it, and the futuristic skyline of Pudong. The Bund was prominently featured in the Steven Spielberg movie "Empire of the Sun," documenting Shanghai's fall to the Imperial Japanese Army in 1943.