Bund Source to Shiliupu: the full waterfront
From the northern church to the southern docks in one walk
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Stops in order
Yuanmingyuan Road · old Shanghai Rowing Club
Starting point. The 1905 British Rowing Club at 76 Yuanmingyuan Road — red-brick Victorian, with the city's first indoor swimming pool. Restored in 2013 as an exhibition hall. This is the 'source' of the Bund: where Suzhou Creek empties into the Huangpu, and the Bund starts counting south from here.
Union Church · Yuanmingyuan & Suzhou Road
Fifty metres south of the Rowing Club. Built 1886 as a non-denominational church for British residents. The original tower burned down in a 2007 fire and was rebuilt in 2010 from the original drawings; close up, old and new bricks still differ in tone. Garden Bridge is immediately east when you step out.
Garden Bridge / Waibaidu Bridge
Built 1907 — China's first all-steel riveted bridge, spanning Suzhou Creek where it meets the Huangpu. In 2008 the entire bridge was floated downriver, refurbished, and returned three months later. The rails were originally dark green; they were repainted silver in the 1980s. The southward view from the bridge is the most classic Bund skyline shot.
Peace Hotel · Nanjing East Road junction
The mid-Bund starts here. The 1929 Sassoon House — green copper roof, hardest to miss. The Old Jazz Bar on the ground floor still runs; its band averages 70 years old and hasn't changed the set list since 1980. Walking south takes you through the densest 600 m of the Bund's 22 foreign buildings, all the way to the Customs House.
HSBC Building · Customs House
Numbers 12 and 13 on Zhongshan East 1st Road — the Bund's most commanding pair. The 1923 HSBC, 'the finest building between Suez and the Far East', has eight mosaic dome panels in its lobby — plastered over in 1956, only rediscovered in 1997. The 1927 Customs House next door still strikes the hour from its bell tower (it once played The East Is Red).
Jinling East Road · old colonnaded street
About 700 m south of the Customs House, turn west onto Jinling East Road. This is Shanghai's only stretch of qilou colonnaded street — an early-1900s commercial nod to Guangzhou at the French/International Settlement boundary. Restored in 2017 without demolition; shops still trade. Then head back to the river, south on Zhongshan East 2nd, to reach Shiliupu.
Shiliupu · old docks
Endpoint. From 1862 this was Shanghai's largest passenger and cargo dock — for a century, the first step ashore for migrants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The 1947 waiting hall survives, repurposed as a dining strip. With the river wind, you can still smell diesel. Sit on the riverside steps: north is the Bund skyline, east is Lujiazui — Shanghai a century ago and Shanghai today, in a single frame.
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