The Bund - introduction
address: Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu (the Bund Road) - start at the end, close to the Obelisk and No. 30
The Bund is the proverbial boulevard built on nothing. It was born at the beginning of the 20th century with the help of the West – Great Britain, France and the U.S. Next to the Old City and Pudong, the city’s newest district; the Bund is one of the symbols of Shanghai. This section of the Huangpu riverbank is a cosy promenade; taking a walk here can last hours, without one even noticing how the hours pass.
Both during the day and in the evenings, visitors to the Bund can admire the traffic on the Huangpu River, the hotels and banks on the riverside. But bear in mind that all this has been here for only one hundred years - and before that, things were very different.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a visitor to the Bund would have seen nothing but fields. Every year, the spring floods would change the bed of the Huangpu and Suzhou rivers. For the emperor, Shanghai was only a dot on the map. Shanghai was circled by defensive walls and was about as big as the current Old City near the Yuyuan Garden. It seems unbelievable, but the Shanghai of those times was more than 20 times smaller than Shanghai today.
Then, foreigners started to arrive. This location, in particular, was very intriguing for both the French and the British. They started to buy up land, using both force and coercion. At the time, the northern bank of the Huangpu River was outside the city walls. It was probably considered madness to even think that someone would want to build houses here. In the middle of the 19th century it was inconceivable to think that some 50 years later, the richest and most colorful boulevard in the entire China would cover these fields.
But it became true. This foreign incursion into Shanghai, complete with trading privileges obtained from the emperor, resulted in huge wealth being obtained, fortunes being chased and different peoples becoming something new and unique. So began the Bund, the first modern financial centre in China, and Asia – the Wall Street of Asia.
But even before that, events of grave importance took place. After the Second Opium War the British were granted autonomous rights over Shanghai. In 1843 they started to build a new England, where Chinese laws and customs would be invalid and British laws and customs would hold sway. The place they chose for this ’home from home’ was the modern Bund. The land here was forcibly seized from the Chinese. In order to control the trade from inland China, a settlement was created on the mouth of the Yangtze River, on the Northern banks of the Huangpu River. The main artery of this settlement became the Bund.
Before World War II, Shanghai was either a paradise, or hell on earth – depending on whom you asked. Mere chance resulted in the fortune seeker finding one or the other. There was no middle ground, life was as black and white as you can possibly imagine. Shanghai became the destination of opportunists both from China and abroad – a place where they could trade, find work or hide from their past. People came here with their entire families; in a way, it was like America of the Orient. From this grew modern Shanghai, where money is milled like flour. It goes without saying that few newcomers found their happiness that easily. On the streets of Shanghai, you could see Chinese beggars side-by-side with foreign exiles. Each and every one of them tried to survive as best they could, whether it was by cleaning shoes on the street or gambling all they had at the horse track, hoping for that one big win.
The rest of China might have been a battleground for endless wars, Shanghai and its foreign rulers presented an island of relative peace. For the Chinese, it was like El Dorado – a place where they fled to escape the bloodshed of the Middle Kingdom - this is what China means in Chinese. This was made even easier by the fact that before World War II, entering Shanghai did not require a passport.
All this high life came to a sudden end in 1949, just before the People’s Republic of China was born. The foreigners fled from Shanghai, moving mainly to the U.S. They left behind the Bund – the Financial Centre of Asia, with its buildings reminiscent of an extravagant and expensive lifestyle. As with all memorials from the past, there are people who are satisfied with the past, and those who would rather forget it. Clearly, this is also the case with the Bund, but you can’t wish it away. And it is without a doubt a milestone of times past. Let us explore it further!
The first major building on the Bund was the British Consulate, built where the Suzhou River joined the Huangpu River. The official address of the building is Zhongshan Dong Li Yu number 33.
After defeating the Qing Dynasty forces in the First Opium War, the Brits were granted free reign over Shanghai. In 1843, the first British Consul, Sir George Balfour, arrived in Shanghai. At first, he took up residence in the Old City, but since laws prohibited foreigners from building houses there, the Consul immediately set out to look for a new and more suitable place for the British consulate.
At the same time, the British were about to begin their seizure of Chinese land to create an autonomous British enclave, which would control trade with inner China. 1845 was the birth date of the first foreign territory in Shanghai, named the British Concession. It covered approximately 1.5 kilometers of the Bund and reached inland up to the modern Henan Zhulong. Although nominally, this belonged to the Qing Dynasty, the area bordered by Beijing Donglu in the north, the Huangpu River in the east, Yan’an Donglu in the south and Henan Zhonglu in the west, was ultimately governed by the British. It must be said that Sir Balfour was clever and his efforts successful – it was him who chose this piece of land and bought it from the Qing Dynasty. Nevertheless, differences with the British Foreign Office led to him being fired. In 1846 he returned to England. At this time, plans for the British Consulate were already well under way and the seed for further foreign settlements had been planted.
The first residing Consul in the new building was Rutherford Alcock. The years that followed were crucial to both the Bund and to Shanghai in general – it was from the British Consulate that the West’s feverish activities in Shanghai were orchestrated and the plans culminating in the British Concession started right here.
Construction of the Consulate began in 1849. Two decades later, on Christmas Eve 1870, the house burned down, and today, you may see its successor, built in 1873. The British Consulate is the oldest building on the Bund – and the only building with some greenery. Today, the Consulate might seem like it’s about to drown in the traffic and the larger buildings surrounding it.
At the end of the 19th century, it was a bit like a beacon, standing at the joining of two rivers. The only things higher than this two-floor building were trees, whispering in the wind blowing from the rivers. From the small plaza in front of the consulate, the watcher could contemplate traffic along both rivers, as well as marvel at the life on the promenade alongside the Huangpu. It was a peaceful place. Looking across the Huangpu, the distant shore was partly undistinguishable from the waves. The horizon seemed farther than the home beyond the ocean. In many ways, it was akin to a manor in the English countryside. Even the climate in the autumn here would remind one of England, and thus soothe the mind.
The building itself is located behind the Peninsula Hotel main building and is two floors high, built in the Neo-Renaissance style. The building is in the shape of the letter H. The front of the building is covered by a garden maintained with English precision. Some of the trees here are older than 100 years, and one of those, a ginkgo, is visible right as you enter the garden. As it stands, the modern garden is not small, but originally it was twice the size it is today. The British Consulate served
as a seat for international diplomacy until 1961, when the building became the property of the city of Shanghai. At one point, it was also home to a very Chinese shop called the Friendship Store. And after that, it became a part of the Peninsula Hotel, with its main building next door, facing the Bund. The British Consulate, meanwhile, was relocated to Nanjing Xilu road No. 1376.
But although the sometime British Consulate was the cornerstone of the Bund, we can’t focus solely on that.
The Bund - buildings No. 29-27
Let us move south taking an easy pace from the obelisk – Monument to the People’s Heroes, under which you will find the Bund Museum. To the right we will see buildings that were built in the Orient but in the style of the West. To the left and over the Huangpu River we see the modern Pudong district, the financial centre of Asia in the 21st century.
Pudong is home to some of the highest skyscrapers in the world. In some ways, it is a front line between old Europe and new Asia, and the skyscrapers there are like mountains forced out of the earth as two tectonic plates collide.
If you have the opportunity to look this way from the Eastern shore of the Huangpu River, you will see how the Bund starts to meander left, or to the south. In a way, it reminds one of the back of a great dragon. Building No. 29 would be the beginning. Building No. 1, or the Yan’an Donglu crossroad, would be the end.
The next building on the Bund is the main building of the Peninsula Hotel. It is one of the most expensive and most luxurious hotels in all of China.
Moving on from the hotel, we reach Building No. 29. It is a beautiful building with Ionic columns and a Baroque-style entrance – Banque de l’Indochine. While the British Consulate was built in the middle of the 19th century, most of the other buildings were constructed in the beginning of the 20th century. For example, Banque de l’Indochine was built in 1914. It is a building with only three floors, making it one of the lowest on the Bund, reaching an overall height of 21.6 metres. In 1899 Banque de l’Indochine, created for French colonies in Asia, established a branch office in Shanghai, in the French Concession. Quite soon after that, plans were set in motion to move the headquarters of the bank entirely to Shanghai. In 1911 building began. In 1914 the bank opened its doors on the Bund for the first time.
Although nowadays, Building No. 29 might seem easy to overlook, once it was a place of extreme importance. From here, France controlled all trade with the colonies, not to mention all trade between France and China. When Banque de l’Indochine closed in 1955 Building No. 29 became the Bureau of Housing Management for the Shanghai municipal government. Later, the same rooms have been used by the Public Security Bureau, Traffic Division, and the Shanghai Branch of the Everbright Investment Bank, owned by the Chinese government.
The second segment of the ‘dragon’, or Building No. 28 seems to be like an overly affectionate stranger who has glued itself to Banque de l’Indochine. As we continue our stroll on the Bund, let’s try to notice the alley between the two buildings – it is difficult! Often, people can’t tell where one building ends and the other begins. Actually, Building No. 28, or the Glen Line Building, is one of the smallest buildings on the Bund. Even considering its underwhelming stature, you will surely remember one thing from it – the upper part of the facade is built to resemble the captain’s bridge of a vessel on stormy seas. The round window, looking towards the river Huangpu, is like a captain’s spyglass searching for land. Obviously, this design is not accidental. On the contrary, it is meant to convey the spirit of the original owners – Glen Line, a Scottish shipping company.
Like many other enterprises, Glen Line was founded as a modest company with only one ship that sailed between South America and Scotland. In time, their business grew, greatly helped by foreign control over Chinese trade. This opened up lucrative venues for many European companies, including Glen Line. In the 19th century, European businesses started focusing on trade between China and Europe en masse. Thanks to providing shipping for such companies, Glen Line reached its height in the 1920s, memorialized by their new office, or the Glen Line Building. Unfortunately, these good times did not last, the global financial crisis of the 1930s hit them hard. In 1936 Glen Line was forced to leave Shanghai. Later, the house served as the German Consulate, accommodation for the U.S. military, and the U.S. Consulate. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the building went to Radio Shanghai.
The next building we see after crossing the Beijing Donglu is numbered 27. This is the EWO Building, originally the headquarters for East Asia’s foremost holding company, Jardine Matheson. Jardine Matheson Bank was one of the partners in opening Chinese harbors to Europe in the middle of the 19th century – a process which irrevocably changed both China and the power struggles in distant Europe. Jardine Matheson Bank, you see, was where most of the opium trade between England and China took place. Foreign countries imported opium to China, and in return, exported Chinese goods. Jardine Matheson’s branch office in Shanghai was established in 1843. As said earlier, the bank mainly traded in opium. A few decades later, after gaining fame – or notoriety – the bank started dabbling in other areas as well, starting with factories and ending with harbors. Even today, Jardine Matheson tries to have a hand in everything. It is no longer a bank but a holding company, headquartered in Hong Kong.
In the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, business and trade between China and Europe was booming. This led to many of the buildings on the Bund being expanded, including the Jardine Matheson office. Built originally as a two-floored building, it grew to 8 floors, reaching up to 39 meters in height. From the outside, the three separate construction stages are clearly visible. As Jardine Matheson was once the largest foreign bank in Shanghai, this series of rebuilding shouldn’t be surprising.
Among the landmarks of the Bund, the EWO Building stands out as one of the most desirable ones – at least, the number of past owners strongly suggests it might be so. It has housed a Japanese bank, various airlines and shipping companies, and for a time, even the Trade Office of the British Consulate. During the People’s Republic of China, this building was, for a long time, home to a foreign trade company, owned by the Shanghai City Council. And, following a recent investment of 12 million USD, the EWO Building is now home to the first Chinese Saks Fifth Avenue luxury store. The store in Manhattan, by the way, is three times smaller!
The Bund - buildings No. 26-18
The Bund is full of magnificent buildings that were once the property of successful businesses and distant governments. The stories one could tell about them are long indeed, but we have just started...
Turning back to the history of the Bund, it should be clear that the circle of successful businesses located here was ever growing. The dreams of a spectacular and rich Asian finance centre had become a reality. The success of Shanghai proved lucrative for both common fortune hunters and shrewd entrepreneurs. And since success, good fortune and money were seemingly as plentiful - and as unpredictable - as the waters of the Yangtze River, steps were taken to try to ensure that the system remained in working order. Money always comes with risks, and those risks need grounding.
Keeping this in mind, we see how the next building, No. 26, fits here like a glove. This was once the office of an insurance company – Yangtze Insurance Association. While the Chinese were the first to invent insurance as such, a long time back, then by the middle of the 19th century, the western insurance system was for them paradoxically new and interesting. It seemed a bit foreign and enigmatic, but at the same time curious enough to be dissected in the academic journals and books of the time. Building No. 26, which was completed in 1920, was the location of several different insurance companies. Each of them offered insurance for trading and shipping companies.
Understandably – before World War II, most of Shanghai revolved around foreign trade. Over time, though, many of these businesses went bankrupt. From their remains grew out Yangtze Insurance Company, which gave the building
it’s current name. During the first half of the 20th century, the company was owned by the richest man in Shanghai Kung Ling-kan, who happened to be the son of the Prime Minister of the Republic of China, Kung Hsiang-hsi. Another sign, that back then, the Bund was the property of the richest of the rich. After the war, the building housed a company dealing in food exports. Later the building went to Agricultural Bank of China. Today, it is one of the largest banks in China.
Before reaching the highest building of the Bund, we see another bank. This is Building No. 24 – the branch office of Yokohama Specie Bank. Yokohama Bank, by the way, was the direct predecessor to the largest bank in modern Japan, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. Needless to say, Yokohama Specie Bank had a crucial role in the relations between China and Japan – nearly all of the trade between the countries was conducted via this bank. This is very similar to French Banque de l’Indochine, whose branch office relocated from the French Concession to the Bund in the beginning of the 20th century.
The Yokohama Specie Bank Building got its modern look in 1924, when the bank bought the house and, after extensive renovations, moved in. Perhaps now you see what is meant by the phrase “Wall Street of Asia”. Only the most successful businesses and banks could afford lodgings in this part of Shanghai. Yokohama Specie Bank was established in 1893, and then as a single office in central Shanghai. It took several decades of successful business for them to be able to move to the Bund – the artery of the East, the Promised Land.
If we take a closer look at the history of the Yokohama Specie Bank Building, we notice clear signs of quintessential Chinese psychology. For the longest time, Japan has been China’s number one rival and troublemaker. The wall around Shanghai was built largely because of the Japanese pirates who plagued the coastal waters near Shanghai. Today, the only thing remaining of this wall is a single gate, but in Chinese psyche, the memory of Japanese buccaneers is firmly established.
Shanghai Stories TOP3: the Bund, Yuyuan Garden, Mid-Lake Pavilion Teahouse Page 1