A Brief History of The Bund

The Bund’s name is derived from the Anglo-Indian, and literally means "muddy embankment." In the early 1920s, the Bund became the city's foreign street: Americans, British, Japanese, French, Russians, Germans, and other Europeans built banks, trading houses, clubs, consulates, and hotels in styles from neoclassical to art deco.

As Shanghai grew to be a bustling trading center in the Yangtze Delta, the Bund's warehouses and ports became the heart of the action. With the Communist victory, the foreigners left Shanghai, and the Chinese government moved its own banks and offices here.