Waitan’s stone skyline along Shanghai’s Huangpu River

Waitan, better known in English as the Bund, stretches along the western bank of the Huangpu River in central Shanghai, where a row of historic riverfront buildings faces the towers of Pudong. This waterfront developed from the mid nineteenth century as part of the Shanghai International Settlement and became a showcase of Western commercial architecture in East Asia.

Waterfront promenade between river and city

Waitan occupies a section of Zhongshan East 1st Road beside the Huangpu River in the eastern part of Huangpu District, forming a long promenade between the city and the water.A waterfront area in central Shanghai links the historic embankment to the broader urban grid, so that major streets from inland Huangpu arrive here at the riverfront. The promenade runs beside a continuous line of masonry facades, while across the water the glass and steel towers of Lujiazui in Pudong form a contrasting skyline.

The area grew after Shanghai opened as a treaty port in 1843, when foreign trading houses and banks established themselves along the river and extended the former towpath into a formal embankment.The Bund grew along the old towpath of the Huangpu describes how the waterfront evolved into a continuous row of commercial headquarters during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Walking the promenade places the visitor between two distinct urban images: stone-clad banks and hotels on one side, and high-rise silhouettes on the other.

A museum of early twentieth-century architecture

By the 1920s and 1930s Waitan had taken on a dense concentration of commercial buildings in neoclassical, Renaissance Revival, Art Deco and other early modern styles, giving it a reputation as a kind of open-air architectural museum.A guide to the Bund’s heritage architecture notes that banking and insurance companies built many of the grand stone-fronted structures that define the waterfront in this period. The facades carry columns, pediments, domes and clock towers, and many of the interiors were fitted out with high banking halls and richly decorated lobbies.

Several individual buildings on Waitan are widely cited as landmarks of this commercial era. The former HSBC Building, completed in 1923, stands out for its dome and once housed what was considered one of the grandest banking interiors in Asia.The former HSBC Building and neighbouring landmarks also mentions the Customs House with its clock tower from 1927, the Peace Hotel in the former Sassoon House from 1929 with its green copper roof, and the Bank of China Building completed in 1937 with its blend of modern lines and Chinese detailing. Together they give the row a strongly twentieth-century profile even as the surrounding city has changed.

From foreign concession to protected heritage

Waitan formed part of the former Shanghai International Settlement administered by foreign powers after the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, and many of its buildings housed British, American, French, Russian, German and Japanese banks, consulates and trading firms in the early decades.The Bund’s history in the international settlement describes how the area developed as the city’s commercial frontage during this period. The foreign concessions were abolished in 1943, and after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 many of the riverfront buildings passed into state ownership and were adapted for governmental or other domestic uses.

By the late twentieth century the architectural value of Waitan’s waterfront row had been recognised, and several structures received formal protection as historic buildings, with some complexes designated as key cultural relics under state protection.A tour of historic structures on the Bund highlights No. 1 Waitanyuan at the northern end, originally associated with the British consulate and later listed among examples of outstanding modern architecture in the 1990s. Restoration projects have brought several interiors back into use as hotels, banks, restaurants and cultural venues, so that the waterfront functions both as an emblem of Shanghai’s treaty-port past and as an active city district.

Visiting Waitan: what travellers from Western Europe should know

• Waitan lies in the Huangpu District of Shanghai along Zhongshan East 1st Road on the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing the Lujiazui skyscraper cluster in Pudong.
• The promenade is a long, level riverside walk paved for pedestrians, with kerbs and occasional flights of steps linking the embankment to nearby streets and viewing terraces.
• Several Shanghai Metro lines serve the wider Huangpu District; East Nanjing Road Station on Line 2 is a common access point within walking distance of the riverfront.
• The official language is Mandarin Chinese and the currency is the renminbi (Chinese yuan).
• Entry requirements depend on your nationality; UK travellers can check the FCDO travel advice at gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice, Irish travellers the Department of Foreign Affairs at ireland.ie.

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Frequently asked questions about Waitan

Where is Waitan located in Shanghai?

Waitan runs along Zhongshan East 1st Road on the western bank of the Huangpu River in Huangpu District, opposite the Lujiazui area of Pudong.

What can visitors expect when walking along Waitan?

Visitors encounter a long riverfront promenade lined with early twentieth-century banks, hotels and customs buildings, with broad views across the Huangpu to the modern skyscrapers.

What makes Waitan distinctive among Shanghai’s districts?

Waitan is distinctive for its continuous row of historic commercial architecture from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, concentrated along a single riverbank facing a contemporary skyline.