The Huangpu River is the mother river of Shanghai City, which witnesses the ups and downs of this great city. It is regarded as the symbol and epitome of Shanghai City, and a very important place to go if you pay a visit to Shanghai City.
One of the key features of the Bund is the contrast it provides. On the West side of Zhongshan Road sits the historic European style buildings,this is called ´Puxi´ . Just opposite on the Eastern side of the river is the area called ´Pudong´ where Shanghai´s most modern constructions can be seen.
More than 160 years ago, this area was a stretch of muddy shoreline. After a Western-style house was built here more and more people followed suit. Gradually the area became known as "The Bund".
Now the Chinese people and Westerners lived together. The Customes Office adopted a new system. The Bund began to prosper.
A prosperity the likes of which had never been seen before, set loose all kinds of ambitions, which in return, almost destroyed that prosperity.
This is the earlist video of the HSBC building ever found. In the picture, most customers coming in and out of this brand-new impressive building are foreigners.
Medhurst left Shanghai and returned to London in 1856, and died there in January of the following year. After Medhurst died, his oxen-driven press was sold, and the buyer was the Zilin Company, the owner of the "North China Herald".
At this time, Shanghai was called the Hollywood of the East. At that time, all the major European and American movie studios had distribution arrangements in Shanghai, and Hollywood movies were shown here at the same time as in the US.
Almost everyone knew that discrimination and segregation would be gone someday. But nobody knew when that day would be.
In "The People´s Shanghai"(1950), the Bund appeared calm, but in fact, a storm was looming. A military battle had just been over, but a battle without gunpowder smoke was imminent.
In the heyday of Shanghai´s reconstruction, the Shanghai Mansion was one of the three highest buildings in the Bund.
