The Bund
Fifty-two concession-era buildings facing the Pudong towers, one river apart.
Duration
1 hr – 2 hrs
Best time
At nightfall
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
The Bund is the riverfront of the old International Settlement: a kilometre and a half of banks, shipping companies and consulates built between 1860 and 1930, in every style Europe was exporting then — neoclassical, art deco, neo-Gothic. Fifty-two buildings are listed.
Opposite, across the Huangpu, Pudong was still paddy fields in 1990. The Pearl Tower went up in 1994, the Shanghai Tower in 2015 at six hundred and thirty-two metres. The two banks face each other a century apart, and that is the whole point of standing there.
Getting there
Metro line 2 or 10, East Nanjing Road station, then five minutes on foot eastward. The promenade is raised.
Rules on site
The Pudong towers' lighting goes off around ten, earlier on some weeknights: the night view has an end. The promenade is closed in sections during major events.
