Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
warships. Everything arrived here, from silk and tea to heavy industrial
machinery. So too did wealthy foreigners, ready to pick their way to one of the
grand hotels through crowds of beggars, hawkers, black marketeers, shoeshine
boys and overladen coolies.
When the Communists took over in 1949 the buildings were mothballed,
and though nothing was done to preserve these symbols of foreign imperi-
alism, surprisingly little was destroyed. Now, as Shanghai rises, the street is
once again a hub of commerce, though of the decidedly upmarket kind. As
well as the ritziest shops, such as an Armani showcase, the buildings house
Shanghai's fanciest restaurants (see p.116), though if you just want to eat,
rather than have a life- (and wallet) transforming culinary experience, choice
is much more limited.
Along Suzhou Creek
Before heading south for the Bund proper, it's worth taking a quick peek
around the colonial edifices just north of the Waibaidu Bridge. You can't miss
the hulking
Broadway Mansions
, though you may wish you could - it's a
classic example of the po-faced stolidity of the Chicago School and would
make a good Orwellian Ministry of Truth. When it was built in 1933, it was the
highest building in Asia. During World War II it was taken over by the Japanese;
it is now a dull hotel (see p.106). Its most illustrious resident was Jiang Qing
(wife of Mao Zedong), who issued a decree during the Cultural Revolution
banning barges and sampans from travelling up the Huangpu or Suzhou while
she was asleep. If f you're not staying here, you can appreciate the views by taking
the lift to the eighteenth floor.
Just east, over the road, the
Russian Consulate
is one of the few Bund
buildings that is used for its original purpose. The iron grilles over the windows
came in useful on those occasions in the 1920s when this bastion of “Red”
Soviet Russia was attacked by White Russians. In 1960, during one of the
frostier periods of Sino-Soviet relations, it suffered the indignity of being
turned into a bar for seamen; it returned to being a consulate in 1987.
Opposite, the rather grander
Pujiang Hotel
(formerly known as the
Astor
)
r
was built in 1846 and enlarged in 1910, and was the city's glitziest venue until
the
Peace Hotel
was built. It was also one of the few places where polite foreign
l
and Chinese society mingled, when “tea dances” were held - with rather more
whisky than tea serving as social lubricant. The original manager, a retired
seaman, had the corridors painted with portholes and the rooms decorated like
cabins. Today, t hough, with its endless wooden corridors and genteel shabbiness,
the hotel has something of a Victorian public school about it. It remains worth
a snoop for its grand lobby, renovated ballroom and a few relics of its past glories
on display (see also p.107).
The zone north of here, known as
north Bund
, is due to be revamped as a
showpiece waterfront development, complete with a ferris wheel that will be
(of course) bigger than London's, with a two-hundred-metre diameter. For
now, it's a bit scruffy, so instead walk a few hundred metres west along Suzhou
Bei Lu to the Main Post Office, built in 1931 and easily recognizable by its
clock tower. It's the only Bund building that has never been used for anything
but its original function. It houses the
Shanghai Post Museum
(Wed, T hurs,
Sat & Sun 9am-4pm; ¥10) on the third floor, which is more interesting than
it sounds. The collection of letters and stamps is only mildly diverting, but the
new atrium is very impressive, and the view of the Bund from the grassed-over
roof is superb.
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