The Bund

Shanghai’s 1.5-kilometer open-air museum

For 150 years, the Bund has been the front door of Shanghai. In the 1840s it was a muddy towpath along the Huangpu River where British traders tied up their ships. By the 1920s it was the financial center of East Asia, lined with the offices of HSBC, Standard Chartered, Jardine Matheson, and the Shanghai Customs House — all built in the grand European styles of the day. Today it is a 1.5-kilometer pedestrian promenade where 52 of those original buildings still stand, every one of them a registered heritage site, facing the 632-meter Shanghai Tower across the river.

The Bund is free, open 24 hours a day, requires no ticket and no passport, and is the single most important stop in Shanghai for any first-time foreign visitor. Most travelers come for the night view — and they should — but the morning walk, with the buildings in clear daylight and the promenade almost empty, is the underrated experience.

A brief history

The name “Bund” (外滩, Wàitān, literally “outer bank”) comes from the Anglo-Indian term for a raised embankment along a river. The British established a concession here in 1845 after the First Opium War, and for the next 100 years the Bund was the financial and diplomatic center of the Western presence in China. By the 1920s it had earned the nickname “Wall Street of the Far East”.

The 52 surviving buildings were built between 1900 and 1937, in a mix of Gothic, Baroque, Beaux-Arts, Art Deco, Romanesque, and Renaissance Revival styles — a “World Architecture Expo” (世界建筑博览群) as the Chinese description goes. The most photographed are the Customs House (No. 13, 1927, with its iconic clock tower modeled on Big Ben), the former HSBC Building (No. 12, now Pudong Development Bank, with 28 marble columns in the lobby), the Fairmont Peace Hotel (No. 20, originally Sassoon House), and the Bank of China building (No. 23, the only heritage building designed by a Chinese architect).

The modern pedestrian promenade was completed in two phases: the 1990s renovation that made the Bund accessible to the public, and the 2010 renovation on the eve of the Shanghai World Expo that widened the riverside area and created the elevated viewing platform. In 2024-2025, the East Nanjing Road metro station (the main Bund access point) was extensively renovated with new escalators, 36 luggage lockers, and Shanghai’s first combined metro-information-and-KFC service center.

What to see

The 52 heritage buildings: Walk the full length and look up. Every building has a story — HSBC built a vault in 1923 that was impassable for 30 years, the Customs House has the largest clock in Asia (the chime at the quarter-hour is famous across the city), and the Asia Building (No. 1) housed the original Shanghai Club where the longest bar in the East served British traders for 90 years. The on-site Bund History Museum (No. 29, ¥20) explains all of this in 30 minutes and is genuinely worth the stop.

The Pudong skyline across the river: From any point on the Bund, the view across the Huangpu is the Lujiazui financial district. The four landmark towers are: the Oriental Pearl TV Tower (东方明珠, 1994, the silver ball structure); the Jin Mao Tower (金茂, 1999, pagoda-inspired); the Shanghai World Financial Center (上海环球金融中心, 2008, the bottle-opener); and the Shanghai Tower (上海中心, 2015, 632m, the spiral tower, second-tallest building in the world).

Chen Yi Square (陈毅广场) at the south end: open plaza with the Monument to the People’s Heroes and a good wide-angle view of the full 1.5 km of buildings.

The Huangpu River ferry: The 5-minute crossing from Shiliupu Wharf to Lujiazui costs ¥2 cash and is the same ferry local commuters use. The photo from the lower open-air deck — the full Pudong skyline reflected in the water — is the single most iconic Shanghai image.

The night view

The Bund’s light show runs every night from sunset to 22:00. The buildings are floodlit from below with warm golden LED lights; the Pudong skyline does its own synchronized light show across the river. The best photo time is the 30-minute window from sunset to full dark, when you get the lit buildings AND a sky with color in the same frame. After full dark (about 30 min after sunset year-round) the sky turns black and the photos are more contrasty but less atmospheric.

Weekend evenings (Friday and Saturday 19:00-22:00) are extremely crowded — the promenade becomes shoulder-to-shoulder, and the elevated viewing platform requires patient queueing. Sunday morning is the calmest time for photos. Weekday evenings after 21:00 are also manageable.

Getting to the Bund

The main access is East Nanjing Road Station (南京东路站) on Metro Lines 2 and 10. Exit 1 or 7 brings you out 3 minutes’ walk from the central promenade. Lines 2 and 10 are the two most foreigner-friendly lines in Shanghai — they connect to the airports (Line 2 to Pudong International and Hongqiao) and to the high-speed railway station (Line 2 to Hongqiao Railway Station).

If you are already in Pudong (Lujiazui), take Metro Line 2 to Lujiazui Station and walk 5 minutes to the ferry pier, then take the ferry across.

Didi and taxi drop-offs work, but the streets around the Bund are pedestrian-only between roughly 10:00 and 22:00 daily, so cars can only get you to the edge of the area.

When to visit

The Bund is open year-round, but the experience varies significantly:

• Spring (March-May): Best weather. Temperatures 12-22°C, occasional rain, clear skies most days. Most comfortable for the full 1.5 km walk.
• Summer (June-August): Hot and humid (32-38°C), but the night view is dramatic. The wind off the river makes the promenade more comfortable than inland Shanghai.
• Autumn (September-November): Best for photography. Clear skies, lower humidity, beautiful sunset light. The most popular tourist season.
• Winter (December-February): Cold and windy (0-8°C, with wind chill on the open promenade). The buildings lit at night against a winter sky are especially dramatic. Fewer crowds.

Practicalities for foreign visitors

• Payment: All on-site spending (museum, ferry, restaurants) accepts Alipay (with international Visa/Mastercard linked) and WeChat Pay. See our Alipay for foreigners guide.
• Restrooms: Available at the Bund Plaza shopping mall (No. 18), the Chen Yi Square visitor center, and the East Nanjing Road metro station. Clean and modern.
• Lockers: Available at the East Nanjing Road metro station (36 lockers, ¥5-15/hour, multiple sizes) — useful if you want to walk the Bund without dragging luggage. Not available on the promenade itself.
• Photography: Allowed throughout. The light show is best with a tripod if you have one, but hand-held with a modern phone camera is fine. The Customs House clock tower is the most-photographed single landmark.
• Tourist scams: The most common are the “tea ceremony” / “art student” / “secret bar” approaches near the promenade. Polite but firm “bu xie” (不谢, no thanks) and walk on. Anyone selling watches, handbags, or “iPhones” on blankets is selling fakes.
• Weather: The promenade is open-air with no shelter from rain. If it starts raining, the nearest shelter is the Bund Plaza mall or the East Nanjing Road metro station.

What to do nearby

If you have a full day, combine the Bund with these:

• Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street (南京路步行街): 1 block west, 1.2 km of continuous shopping. Worth a 30-minute stroll for the experience, not for the shopping.
• Yu Garden and Old City (豫园): 15 min walk south, a Ming-dynasty classical garden with the famous Huxinting tea house. ¥40 entry.
• Lujiazui (陆家嘴): across the river, the modern skyline. Take the ferry or Metro Line 2. Shanghai Tower observation deck (118th floor, ¥180) is the highlight.
• Shanghai Museum (上海博物馆): 10 min walk west, free, one of the best collections of Chinese antiquities in the world. Closed Mondays.

Final tip

The Bund is best at the transition. Show up 30 minutes before sunset, walk the full 1.5 km from south to north while the buildings are still in daylight, double back to the elevated viewing platform as the lights come on, take the ¥2 ferry to Lujiazui for the back-side view, and end the evening with a cocktail at the Peace Hotel’s Long Bar. That is a perfect Shanghai evening, and it is the only city in the world where a 150-year-old colonial skyline faces a 600-meter modern tower across the same river.