Shanghai has one of the most impressive "front drops" in the world, and gradually the skyline is filling in and being built up to rival any port of the West. - "Far Eastern Review" in June 1927

"Shanghai is always changing," said American writer and New Yorker Magazine columnist Emily Hahn back in the 1930s. Enamored of the city's glamorous life, Hahn extended her stay from several weeks to six years - from 1935 to 1940. She even "married" a Chinese poet-publisher as her "mistress."

Back from six months' maternity leave in Beijing, I also found the city had changed. A visit to the new Shanghai Archives Bureau in a stylish historical building amazed me as the Bund today appeared to be dynamic and poetic, especially on a weekday morning.

Having lived in the city for 16 years, I had not visited the Bund often and thought it was a place for tourists. Walking back and forth down the road sweeping along the Huangpu River with so many examples of handsome architecture that windy morning, my earliest memory of the Bund was suddenly reawakened - I was again a 20-year-old university girl spending hours taking a perfect night photo of the emerald, pyramid-like Sassoon House roof. What was really behind each of the buildings, beyond the brief guidebook introductions? I felt a spark of curiosity in the conjured memories, in the fresh, warm air of the Bund.

Everyone knows a bit of the Bund's history, but few are aware of the speed of Bund's expansion at the very beginning. A 1843 map of the Bund was crisscrossed with farm fields, graveyards and even a cock fighting yard. Only six years later the land was dramatically transformed into the property of dozens of "hongs," the earliest foreign trade companies. Until the 1930s, the Bund was already the site of several "firsts" in China, including the first modern Chinese bank, the first modern Chinese hospital, the first telegraph company and the first elevator.

Also I have enjoyed recent intensive visits to the Bund. Apart from important history and powerful buildings, the Bund area concealed many fun places from restaurants with great views to secret lanes containing fascinating stories. The regular chiming of the Customs House Clock, the breeze from the river and the dreamy lights splashed on those century-old buildings make one want to linger. And almost every time, I met or saw interesting people.

Perhaps that was why vivacious Hahn would have chosen a life around the Bund. Her first Shanghai home was in a Chinese bank building on Jiangxi Road (Bund area). She worked as a reporter in the North China Daily News building on the Bund. As a close friend of Sir Victor Sassoon, she would sometimes party in the Cathay Hotel or meet her Chinese "husband" "Sinmay" on the Bund teeming with rickshaws.

So I decided to restart this column of urban and architectural history at the Bund, telling stories of buildings from No. 1 to No. 33, one by one, combining archival extracts and my field visits. What had kept Shanghai always changing since 1843 was unchanged. Our city is still a vessel of many dreams and desires.

Hahn once wrote that "Peking is a reward for the afterlife" but "Shanghai is for now, for the living me." Sometimes a legend that endures for more than a century endures for a reason. So, please follow her traces and follow me to enjoy the Bund and explore a bit more of our "billion-dollar skyline."

(This column is produced in cooperation with the Shanghai Archive Bureau, the Shanghai Library, Huangpu District Archive Bureau and Shanghai Tourism Bureau. The sources are mostly first-hand accounts in English or Chinese archives. The column has invited architect Zhang Xuefei to shoot some of the photos.)

Strolling along the Bund in the 1930s

This Bund series will let you stroll along the Bund as Ernest O. Hauser had suggested in his book "Shanghai: City for Sale" published in 1940, exploring each building from No. 1, the Asiatic Petroleum Building, to No. 33, the former British Consulate. And it will extend to the Waitanyuan region on Yuanmingyuan Road. Following is an excerpt from Hauser's book.

"You started on its southern end, where it met the Quai de France, and with slow gravity, the massive fronts filed past you. The Asiatic Petroleum Building, on the corner of Avenue Edward VII, led the parade. Next was the Shanghai Club, stodgy and imperial, housing the world's longest bar. There was the Japanese Nisshin Kisen Kaisha, the Commercial Bank of China and the China Merchants' Steam Navigation, both Chinese. Then, with its dignified facade and its colossal white dome, the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, compact manifestation of power. Two massive bronze lions flanked the gate. Their paws and tails were shiny...

The "Hongkong Bank" almost touched with its left shoulder the tall Customs House which had lost, by now, all resemblance to the picturesque Chinese temple of bygone days. You saw the old-fashioned and serious-looking faces of the Bank of Communications and of the Central Bank of China, strangely contrasting with the smart marble front of the Japanese Bank of Formosa. Next came the narrow-chested "Old Lady of the Bund" North China Daily News, the taipan paper par excellence, and the British Chartered Bank, ranging in power and influence next to the dome-crowned "Hongkong Bank." And, on the corner of Nanking Road, you saw the homey-looking Palace Hotel.

You had arrived at Shanghai's most important intersection, the great caesura in the front line of the Bund, Nanking Road. You crossed the street, dodging a dozen rickshaws and one or two tram cars. Your eyes rose along the towering structure of the Sassoon House, Shanghai's tallest building, with its modernistic architecture, and with the large sign over the entrance which said Cathay Hotel. You walked around the building, looked into the windows of its elegant stores. Next was the old site of the German Club, which was the new site of T. V. Soong's Bank of China. After that, Japan's Yokohama Specie Bank, and Italy's Lloyd Triestino.

Here was the famous Ewo Building, housing the rugged old firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co, and also the shipping offices of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company. Next were the Glen Line Building, the French Banque de I'lndochine, the Japanese N.Y.K. And on its old luxurious grounds, reaching all the way to the bank of Soochow Creek, there was the British Consulate."

Chronology of the Bund

1839-1842 First Opium War and the Bund was a mudflat.

1842 The Treaty of Nanking opened Shanghai to Western trade.

1845 First Land Regulations and the delimitation of the British concession.

1847 A British-style mini city mushroomed along the Bund. The earliest compradoric buildings were built for foreign trade companies.

1868 The Public Park on the Bund opened.

1873 The British Consulate was rebuilt which is the oldest building on the Bund today.

1911 The new Shanghai Club opened.

1923 The grand HSBC Building was completed.

1929 The tallest building on the Bund, the Sassoon House, in Art Deco style, opened.

1956 Workers covered the fresco with limestone powder to turn the former HSBC Building into the Shanghai Municipal Hall. The Bund buildings were used by municipal organizations.

1966 The British melody of the Customs House Clock switched to "The East Is Red," a popular song during the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976).

1986 Shanghai government started cleaning the dusty facades of the buildings to apply for National Cultural Relics status.

1991 The Bund lighting project was completed and the frequency of illuminating the Bund increased from only national holidays to every night.

1993 A renovation of the Bund was completed.

1994 Municipal organizations began moving from the Bund to make room for commercial enterprises.

2010 After a 33-month renovation, the Bund showed a new look before the World Expo 2010. A 5,000-pound "Shanghai Bull" was unveiled on the Bund; it was the same as the New York City Charging Bull of Wall Street.