The Bund

The Bund, in Chinese Waitan, is the one-and-a-half-kilometer promenade along the west bank of the Huangpu in Shanghai. Until 1949 this was the International Settlement, and the 52 buildings between Suzhou Creek and Yan'an Donglu - the HSBC Building, the former Customs House with the great Big Ching bell, Sassoon House, the Peace Hotel - form one of the densest ensembles of colonial and Art Deco architecture outside Europe, often called the foreign ministry of 1920s British empire. Across the river rise the towers of Pudong, the Shanghai Tower and the Oriental Pearl; in the evening, with both banks lit up, the Bund offers one of Asia's great cityscapes. By day you walk beneath the stone facades, by night you press against the railing with millions of others.