The Bund

The Bund is a waterfront area and protected historical district in central Shanghai, running along the western bank of the Huangpu River. It is known for its collection of 52 buildings in various Western architectural styles, including Gothic, Baroque, Neoclassical, and Art Deco. From the promenade, you can see the modern skyscrapers of Lujiazui in Pudong across the river.

Don't miss

• The HSBC Building (No. 12, The Bund), completed in 1923, once called 'the most luxurious building between the Suez Canal and the Bering Strait', with restored ceiling mosaics in the entrance hall.
• The Customs House (No. 13, The Bund), built in 1927, with a clock and bell built in England in imitation of Big Ben.
• Sassoon House (No. 20, The Bund), with the attached Cathay Hotel, famous for its jazz band.
• The only bronze statue along the Bund, of military officer Chen Yi, the first Communist mayor of Shanghai, near the Nanjing Road intersection.
• Huangpu Park at the northern end, containing the Shanghai People's Heroes Memorial Tower, a tall abstract concrete tower built in 1993.
• The view of the modern skyscrapers of Lujiazui in Pudong across the Huangpu River.

Tickets & tours

Ways to visit The Bund

Cheapest way inCustomized Private Tour in Shanghai The Bund Yu Garden Zhujiajiao5★ · 21 travelers3-10 hoursFree cancellationFrom$5 per personSee dates →Best full dayPrivate Full-Day Tour: Incredible Shanghai Highlights4.9★ · 378 travelers~8 hoursFree cancellationFrom$109 per personSee dates →Private & flexible3-Hour Shanghai Bund Swift Tour with River Cruise or Skyscraper5★ · 29 travelers~8 hoursFree cancellationFrom$112 per personSee dates →

Getting there

Know before you go

• The Bund stretches one mile (1.6 km) along the bank of the Huangpu River, traditionally from Yan'an Road in the south to Waibaidu Bridge in the north.
• A tall levee, constructed in the 1990s to ward off flood waters, now stands some 10 meters higher than street level along the riverfront.
• Zhongshan Road, the road on which the Bund is centered, was widened to ten lanes in the 1990s, reducing the parkland that once existed along the road.

A bit of history

From the 1860s to the 1930s, the Bund was the rich and powerful center of the foreign establishment in Shanghai, operating as a legally protected treaty port. It housed numerous banks and trading houses from many countries. By the 1940s, it held the headquarters of most major financial institutions in China. After the Communist victory, many institutions moved to Hong Kong in the 1950s. In the late 1970s and 1980s, buildings were gradually returned to their former uses. A major reconfiguration of traffic flow was carried out from 2008, and the Bund reopened to the public on March 28, 2010, after restoration for the World Expo.