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Insight into Historic Bund

Meeting Point & Meeting Time: Fairmont Peace Hotel Lobby at 15:00 If Shanghai is a variant of traditional Chinese culture, the Bund is its origin. To get to know Shanghai, you have to start at the Bund. We’ll stroll down the bund and explore the history and beautiful architecture behind the imperious banking houses that made Shanghai the center of East-Asian trade in the early 20th century.

Empire of the Sun

British writer, James Graham Ballard was born in Shanghai in 1930. He wrote the Empire of the Sun as his autobiography. The story was then put on screen by Spielberg in the 1980's, making it known world-wide. With us, aggregate the fragments of stories, view from same spots that the film was shooted.

Enjoy a drink and the view atop the Peace Hotel Terrace

Under the pyramid top of the Peace Hotel there is a little balcony. Almost a century ago, Victor Sassoon, the owner of the hotel and Shanghai’s biggest power-broker of the 20th century, enjoyed overlooking the Bund on that little balcony. We’ll stop for a drink while we enjoy the marvelous panoramic view of the Bund.

Mysterious Lion Bank

This building was formerly the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Building, AKA the first banking house for modern banking powerhouse HSBC. At that time, the English in Shanghai boasted that it was the most extravagant construction ever erected in the region from Bering Strait to Suez Canal. This building does not open on weekends and holidays since it’s now an active bank. No photos in the bank lobby, and no loud talking, but you must go if it’s open!