1987 Baron Watercolor View of the Shanghai Bund, China

A striking 1987 L. C. Baron impressionist watercolor view of the Shanghai Bund. The view looks south on the Bund from a high point just to the north, across the Wusong River - likely from a high floor in the Broadway Mansions building. Many of the Bund's most famous buildings, including the Peace Hotel and the Bank of China Building, are recognizable. The Huangpu River is full of tradition Chinese Junks. We have been unable to trace the undeniably skilled artist. A Chinese seal appears in the lower left.

The Bund

The Bund is a waterfront area in central Shanghai. The name is derived from the old German term, 'bund,' meaning simply embankment or causeway. Many Asian colonial cities supported a Bund, but none became more famous or iconic than the Shanghai Bund. The area centers on the section of Zhongshan Road within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District. The Bund usually refers to the buildings and wharves on this section of the road, as well as some adjacent area. It is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai and a designated historic zone.

Lining the Huangpu River, the Shanghai Bund has dozens of historical buildings that once housed important banks and trading housing from the United Kingdom, France, United States, Italy, Russia, Germany, Japan, Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the consulates of Russia and Britain, a newspaper, the Shanghai Club and the Masonic Club. The Bund lies north of the old walled city of Shanghai and was initially a British settlement. A building boom at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century led to the Bund becoming the major financial hub of East Asia. The former French Bund, east of the walled city was formerly more a working harbor.