The Bund:外滩

Located along the Huangpu River（黄浦江Huángpǔ Jiāng）, the Bund shows off Shanghai’s outstanding foreign buildings, most of which were erected before 1937. To the Europeans, the Bund was Shanghai’s answer to Wall Street. In the 1930s, the string of buildings hosted the city's financial and commercial centers, and the world's greatest banks and trading empires established a base here.

Originally a pathway stepped by boatmen and hard laborers at the west bank of Huangpu River, the Bund of Shanghai（上海Shànghǎi） today is the most recognized symbol and proud of the city. The Bund（外滩Wàitān） is an Anglo-Indian word for the embankment of a muddy waterfront, what is just the beginning of the Bund. When the first British company was built there in 1846, the flourishing of the Bund Begun. For a century, it became a mark for the modern Shanghai, while to the Europeans, it was also the Wall Street in the east, wher is the prosperous trading, fortunes made and lost.

Hailed as the world architecture museum, dozens of buildings standing on the Bund have witnessed the historical development of the Bund as well as the city. Most of the buildings were reconstructed or repaired, but styles remain. Though they were built in various styles and in different times, they are harmony in the hue, simply making an impressive spectacle. The neo-modern style, baroque of Anglicism, Italian, Frenchy and Spanish, eclecticism and neo-baroque, Indian colonnade, American design and green vault tops are all the distinct examples in the field of architecture.

Owing to its preferable location and its influences on Shanghai economy even on Chinese economy for 150 years, the Bund is the most characteristic view in Shanghai with rich cultural connotations relies on the idiomatical waterfront, long dyke, green trees, and the streetscape of marvelous constructions.

The Bund is always the top tourist spot in the Shanghai city. Apart from the featured exhibition of architectures, the Garden Bridge of Shanghai, the pretty of Huangpu Park, the originality of the Flood Control Wall, and the beauty of the largest river of Shanghai, the Huangpu River are all the places of interest. In addition, Huangpu Cruise（黄浦公园Huángpǔ gōngyuán）, the commercial street Shiliu Pu（十六铺Shíliù pù）for convenient shopping and leisure, the memorial square in honor of Chen Yi（陈毅chén yì）, the first mayor of Shanghai in 1949 in the communist era, Waterfall Clock- an electronic clock showing standard times of main cities in the world on a water-like curtain, Lovers’ Wall- the spacious walkway for sightseeing above the flood control wall are all worth visits.