Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“Prudence” and “Security” but nicknamed “Stephen” and “Stitt”, after the
bank's general managers. One lion looks belligerent, the other smiles inscrutably.
There are similar pairs outside the HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong and
London. Locals used to joke that the lions roared when a virgin passed - so their
incessant silence said something about the relaxed morals of the Shanghainese.
The small door north of the main entrance will get you to the second floor
Bonomi
café (see
p.114), a good place for a break.
South of Fuzhou Lu
Cross Fuzhou Lu, pass a couple more banking headquarters that aren't open to
the public, and you'll come to some very posh addresses. Most of no. 5 (officially
Five on the Bund
) is home to the Huaxia Bank but on Guangdong Lu you'll
find the entrance to the building's upscale restaurant,
M of the Bund
(see
d
p.116).
Opened in 1999, it kicked off the zone's present revival. A little further down,
Three on the Bund
is perhaps the most successful and certainly most
luxurious of the new developments. There's the Shanghai Gallery of Art (see
p.134), an Armani flagship store, Evian Spa (see p.31) and three swish restau-
rants, including
Whampoa Club
(see p.117).
Number 2
is presently unoccupied, w hich is a shame as it has some of the
Bund's most colourful history. It was once that bastion of white male
Huangpu River tours
Even in this age of freeway projects and a sophisticated metro system, the Huangpu
is still a vital resource for Shanghai - one-third of all China's trade passes through
here. The river is also the city's chief source of drinking water - though, thick and
brown, it contains large quantities of untreated waste, including sewage and high
levels of mercury and phenol. At least it no longer serves as a burial ground - until
the 1930s those too poor to pay for the burial of relatives would launch the bodies
into the river in boxes decked in paper flowers.
A highlight of a visit to Shanghai, and an easy way to view the edifices of the Bund,
is to take one of the Huangpu River tours. There are several different companies,
but they all offer similar services, with boats leaving throughout the day from a wharf
at the south end of the Bund, opposite Jinling Dong Lu. Tickets are available from
booths at the wharf itself (daily 8am-4.30pm). One of the better boats - it's new and
it doesn't have fake dragon's claws - is run by the Captain Hostel and leaves from
jetty no. 191, at the southern end.
The hour-long round trip to the Yangpu Bridge, 15km downstream, costs around
¥45, a little more in the classier seats; a less frequent service (also lasting 1hr) heads
to Pudong's Gaoqiao Bridge, but the classic cruise here is the sixty-kilometre, three-
hour journey to the mouth of the Yangzi River and back. There are departures daily at
9am and 2pm, and tickets cost between ¥90 and ¥120, with the higher prices offering
armchairs, a higher deck, tea and snacks. On this cruise, you're introduced to the vast
amount of shipping that uses the port, with all the paraphernalia of the shipping industry
on view, from sampans and rusty old Panama-registered freighters to sparkling Chinese
navy vessels. You'll also get an idea of the colossal level of construction that is taking
place on the eastern shore, before reaching the mouth of the Yangzi itself, where the
wind kicks in and you'll feel like you're almost in open sea. There are also two-hour-long
night cruises, with boats departing at 7pm and 8.30pm (¥78; ¥150 with buffet dinner).
Pudong at night is lit up like a games arcade, and the new construction carries on under
arc lights, so this tour is much more colourful than you might imagine. Note that tours
do not run in foggy or windy weather; for current information, call
T
63744461. It is also
possible to take boats tours from Pearl Dock in Pudong (see p.89).
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