Walk the Bund and the former French Concession in Shanghai

What the experience is

Shanghai grew in the century after the 1840s as a treaty port divided into foreign-run districts. Two of them left the city its best historic streets. The Bund was the waterfront of the International Settlement. The French Concession, which existed from 1849 to 1943, became the favoured residential quarter. Each makes a walk of two or three hours, and together they fill a day.

The Bund

The Bund runs for about 1.6 kilometres along the west bank of the Huangpu, on East Zhongshan Road. Its name comes from a Hindustani word for an embankment. It has some 50 buildings in a mixture of revival styles and Art Deco, built for banks, trading firms, clubs and hotels.

Walk from south to north. No. 2 was the Shanghai Club, the principal British club, now a hotel. No. 12, completed in 1923 for the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, was called the most luxurious building between the Suez Canal and the Bering Strait. Beside it, the Custom House of 1927 has a clock modelled on Big Ben. No. 20 is Sassoon House, built by Victor Sassoon and now the Peace Hotel. The walk ends at the steel Waibaidu Bridge of 1907. The raised riverside promenade, rebuilt and widened in 2010, faces the towers of Pudong.

The former French Concession

The district now lies across parts of Xuhui, Changning and Huangpu districts. Its streets are lined with London plane trees, introduced from France in 1902. The main avenue, once Avenue Joffre, is now Central Huaihai Road. The quieter streets are the reason to come: Wukang Road, a well-restored street with the wedge-shaped Normandie Apartments of 1924 at its southern end; Fuxing Road; and Fuxing Park, laid out in the French manner. The area also holds many of the city’s shikumen lane houses.

When to go

Spring and autumn are the most pleasant seasons for walking. The Bund is best early in the morning, before the crowds, or after dark when both banks are lit. The plane trees are in leaf from April to November.

Good to know

The two areas are a few kilometres apart: take the metro or a taxi between them. Several Bund buildings can be entered, as hotels, restaurants or banks; access to the entrance hall of No. 12 and its mosaic ceiling depends on the building’s current use, so ask before counting on it.

Why OKYTO recommends it

Few cities show the 1920s and 1930s so completely.