An Evening on the Bund (Wed, Sept 7)

September 12, 2011

It is time to explore the Bund… it represents the era of Art Deco architecture, it sits on the end of east Nanjing Rd in Puxi, it is an incredible boardwalk, it is a bird’s eye view to the Oriental Pearl Tower and it is a place for people watching… just to name a few reasons to go there.  The barges move their cargo up and down the Huangpu River while dodging the cruise ships and the sightseeing boats.  The river is alive with activity.

The Bund (which means the Embankment) refers to Shanghai's famous waterfront running along the west shore of the Huangpu River, forming the eastern boundary of old downtown Shanghai. Once a muddy towpath for boats along the river, the Bund was where the foreign powers that entered Shanghai after the Opium War of 1842 erected their distinct Western-style banks and trading houses. From here Shanghai grew into Asia's leading city in the 1920s and 1930s, a cosmopolitan and thriving commercial and financial center. Many of the awesome colonial structures you see today date from that prosperous time and have become an indelible part of Shanghai's cityscape.

Today, a wide avenue fronts the old buildings while a raised promenade on the east side of the road affords visitors pleasant strolls along the river and marvelous views of both the Bund and Pudong across the river. Pudong's new skyscrapers and modern towers -- constituting Shanghai's "21st Century Bund" -- may dominate today's skyline, but the city's core identity and history are strictly rooted in this unique strip on the western shore. For years, the Bund was the first sight of Shanghai for those arriving by boat; it should be your first stop as well.

Recognize this guy?  None other than Chairman Mao!  Wrong… it is a statue of Chen Yi, Shanghai's first mayor after 1949 and a dead ringer for Mao Zedong, at least in bronze.

The one thing you will notice is the top of each of the buildings along the river fly the China flag… see all the red flags.

This bronze bull is big!  It is significant, but unfortunately I didn’t write down the story behind bull.  We did have some fun pictures with the bull… his hind side actually… I decided it better to not include those… although funny, probably not in good taste.

This is a signal beacon house… now a museum, bar, and ticket office.  The Signal Tower is a slender round brick tower that served as a control tower for river traffic during colonial days. First built in 1884, the tower was rebuilt in 1907, and also relayed weather reports. In 1993 during the widening of Zhongshan Lu, it was moved 20m (66 ft.) to its current site.

This is the Hero’s Statue.  It is a very bold statement … it is huge!!  It and the monument below are part of the Hero's memorial.

On the river shore now stands a granite obelisk, Monument to the People's Heroes, erected in 1993, and dedicated to Chinese patriots (as defined by the Communist Party) beginning in the 1840s.  It has impressive carvings all along the inside of the bowl.

We had intended to take the tunnel under the river to get back over to Pudong, but after walking down to where you actually buy tickets in the tunnel, they were closing it up almost 2 hours early.  Not what we had planned, but oh well!

We walked back up East Nanjing Road to the subway station to catch the #2 Line back over to the Luzjiazui station.  We had planned to have Paulander’s for dinner.  We initially got seated in the bar, but the smoking was more than we could handle.  Fortunately there was a high table available in the open dining area.  Although there were only tall stools, it was better than all the smoke. 

As usual, the food was wonderful.  I was glad we had to walk back to the subway so that we could walk off a little of the too full feeling. 

We had a great day and great food!!!  But we were all glad to get back home.  Tomorrow we would be traversing the market… Jason needs a few things to take home.