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"The Bund"
The buildings and what they used to house,
starting from Yanan Lu to the south and working north
Building No. 1: McBain Building, also the Asiatic Petroleum Building, built in Renaissance style in 1915. Later became the Shell Building.
No. 3: The Shanghai Club, built in 1909 for an English club which had been founded 1865. It was said that it had the longest bar in the world, or at least Asia.
Reputedly it was 34 metres (111 ft) long. A part of the bar still remains in the Seamen's Club upstairs. Today it is the Dong Feng Hotel. The former bar is now a Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant.
No. 4: Union Assurance Company of Canton Building, built in 1915, used by the Mercantile Bank of India, Ltd.
No. 5: The Nisshin Kisen Kaisha Building (at the corner of Fuzhou Lu), erected in 1925 for the Japanese shipping line which plied the Chinese coast and the Yangtse.
No. 6: In the early 1930s home of the British P&O Banking Corp. It was later used by the Shanghai Volunteer Corps as billets for its Russian soldiers until the Japanese invasion in 1937. Then it became the Central Bank of China, Trust Department.
No. 7: Commercial Bank of China.
No. 8: A Chinese office building (Tong Yok Kung or Tung Tzue Shing).
No. 9: This structure housed the steamship lines of China Merchant Steamship navigation Co., States Steamship Co., and American Pioneer Line.
No. 12: The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. Finished in 1921. Mentioned in the Shanghai Guide of 1925 as the largest bank of the Far East. In front of the building was a pair of magnificent bronze lions, similar to those in front of the Hongkong Bank in Hong Kong. They were removed during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, but still exist.
No. 13: Customs House, built in 1927. The entrance hall has mosaics of Chinese junks. Opposite it, on the river's edge, was the customs jetty where all customs clearances were done. The former building, from 1843, in the English Tudor style, was demolished and the old clock, 'Big Ching", was relocated into the tower of the new structure.
No. 14: Bank of Communications, on the corner of Hankou Lu. Until 1914 this was the German Asiatic Bank. Now the building houses the Federation of Labour Unions.
No. 15: Until 1926, the Russo-Asiatic Bank, then the Central Bank of China. There used to be sculptured heads under the eaves, but during the Cultural Revolution they were destroyed by the Red Guards.
No. 16: Bank of Taiwan (Japanese). Behind it, on Jiujiang Lu, were the Mitsubishi Building and the Somitoma Building, both Japanese.
No. 17: Home of the North China Daily News, plus a number of printing companies and the Americasn Asiatic Underwriters Savings Bank.
No. 18: Chartered Bank Building, housing the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China.
No. 19: Palace Hotel, built in 1906. It had a legendary roof garden destroyed by fire in 1914. Today it is the south wing of the Peace Hotel.
Nanjing Lu
No. 20: Cathay Hotel, now the north wing of the Peace Hotel. Built in 1930 by Victor Sassoon. The office portion of this structure was called the Sassoon House. It was home to the Chamber of Commerce of the Netherlands and the Banque Belge pour l'Etranger. The remainder was the Cathay Hotel which had a nightclub under the roof. Sassoon, who was a bachelor, lived in the penthouse. He was also the owner of the English Country style villa located on the grounds of today's Cypress Hotel.
No.22: Bank of China, Shanghai Branch. On this location, prior to 1934, stood a colonial style building with two towers named the Concordia Club, a German club founded in 1865.
No.24: Yokohama Specie Bank, built in 1924. It became the Central Bank of China in 1945.
No.26: Yangtze Insurance Building. Opened in 1918. Among others it housed the Italian Chamber of Commerce, the Italian Travel Agency and the Danish Consulate.
No.27: Ewo Building. Ewo was the name of Jardine, Matheson and Co. Ltd, founded in 1834 by the Scots William Jardine and James Matheson, which became one of the great trading houses of the China Coast.
No.28: Glen Line Building. It also housed the P.& O. Banking Corporation. In 1941 it was confiscated by the Japanese and given to the Germans, who used it as their consulate. The consulate's entry was a side entrance on Peking Road No. 2. In 1945 the American consulate occupied the premises. the American Information Service remained on the ground floor until 1949.
No.29: Banque de l'Indo-Chine.
No.31: Office of the Japanese steamship line Nippon Yusen Kaisha. The houses
No.32 through 53 were located on the premises of the former British consulate. The consul's residence was house No.34 (today the house on the far right in back).
No.33 was the office building (now probably the structure to the left of the consul's residence) in which was housed the former British Court of Justice.
No.35 was the British Naval Office.
No.51 was the "Office of Works", with an entry on Yuanmingyuan Road which it still has.
No.32, residence of the vice consul, no longer exists.
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