The Bund got its name from a desolate beach outside the old Shanghai City. If you have never been to the Bund, then you have never been to Shanghai. The Bund symbolizes Shanghai and Bund is an epitome of Shanghai's history.
Tracing back, from the Opium War broke out in 1840 to the 1930's, many foreign businesses snatched the prime area in Shanghai, to establish concessions, banks, headquarters, consul houses and so on. Hence, Shanghai, a small seaside town one hundred years ago, became the largest city in Asia. It also earned the reputation of "The Oriental Wall Street". Even today, visitors can still feel the prosperity of the old Shanghai, when looking at those old buildings.
The east side of the Bund is right next to the Huangpu River. To the west of the Bund, there are group of 52 buildings standing in various styles, Gothic, Baroque, Rome, Renaissance, Classic and the combination of Eastern and Western style. Although these buildings were completed at different time and were in different styles, the main elements of these buildings were fairly unified and the overall outline is well coordinated.
Walking on the Zhongshan East Road, you will experience a kind of vigorous, forceful and solemn momentum. Some say actually that the Bund is like "an exhibition of buildings".
If the building zone on the Bund were a gallery, the rest of the Bund would be a showroom. When the sun rises in the east, the Bund is a place where people do exercises. In daytime, this building complex, blended with the beautiful scenery of the Huangpu River and the Pudong area, this scenic spot is tourists' favorate. When evening comes, city lights coats the Bund with brilliant colors, which makes the Bund particularly beautiful. Old buildings by the river echo with the new scenic spots the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and the Jinmao mansion, that this spectacular scenery often amazes many tourists.
