Now we come to the Bund by the Huangpu River in Shanghai. First of all, Iwould like to welcome you to visit the Bund and wish you a pleasant trip.
There are five tourist routes in the new Bund. On your left hand side arethe magnificent buildings and spacious Zhongshan Road known as the "WorldArchitecture Expo". On your right hand side are the sparkling Huangpu River andPudong Lujia financial and trade zone with bright future. In front of you is anew and unique sightseeing area. The buildings, Zhongshan Road, sightseeingarea, Huangpu River and Lujiazui are like the staff in the music score, whilethe industrious Shanghai people are like strings of inter symbol, forming thelatest and most beautiful movement. Welcome to all the guests.
In short, it used to be a grassy wasteland outside the old city ofShanghai.
Although these buildings with European Renaissance style are not designedby the same designer or built in the same era, their architectural style is soharmonious and unified that it seems to be natural. From the the Bund road tothe outer white road bridge, the length of the arc is only 1.5 kilometers, androw upon row of 52 buildings of different styles, including English, French,ancient Greek, etc. At that time, many foreign banks, associations andconsulates gathered here, known as "Wall Street" in the East, forming ahistorical miniature of the semi colonial and semi feudal society in oldShanghai.
Please see, Dongfeng Hotel No.2 on the new Bund used to be a very famousBritish club. It is a typical British classical building. The building is 6stories high (including basement). There is a lookout Pavilion at the north andsouth ends of the roof. The interior decoration is very gorgeous. The firstfloor bar used to be proud of its 110.7-foot bar, which is the longest in theEast. Now KFC is located in the bar.
Before the new Bund 12, it was the famous "HSBC Bank". The building wasbuilt in 1923, which is an antique Greek style dome building. The building is arectangular building close to square, with five stories high and a halfspherical top layer. There are seven stories at the top of the building and asteel frame structure. The interior of the building is decorated with variousreception rooms in the United States, Britain, France, Russia and Japan. Thisbuilding was once regarded by the British as one of the most exquisite buildingsfrom the Suez Canal to the Bering Strait in the Far East.
The building next to HSBC is the Shanghai customs building, a 19th-centuryretro building, built in 1927, which is rare in the world today. The clock onthe top of the building can be seen all around. It plays a short tune every 15minutes. The sound of the bell is melodious and deep, with a sound of 10 Li.
After Wilson, the British designer, the HSBC building and the customsbuilding are affectionately called "sister buildings" in Shanghai, and they arestill one of the important symbols of Shanghai.
The two buildings at the entrance of Nanjing East Road are called peacehotel. The south facing building was built in 1906. It was called Huizhong hotelat that time. It is the earliest existing hotel in Shanghai. It can be used as ahistorical building, belonging to the Renaissance of British culture. Thebiggest feature of the building is that the facade is made of red brick withwaist line and white wall brick with veneer. From a distance, it looks solemnand elegant with unique style, which is a rare masterpiece.
These buildings on the Bund are the crystallization of the industriouswisdom of the Chinese working people, and also reflect the plunder and invasionof Shanghai by the western colonists. Nowadays, in order to let people know thehistory of these buildings, the Chinese and English nameplates are hung in frontof each building.
As for the Bund, the name given to her by Shanghai people has changed withthe passage of time. Shanghai people call the Bund before liberation the oldBund and after liberation the Bund. Now people praise it as the new Bund. Therehave been scenes of seizing the Bund many times in history, but each time has acompletely different historical significance. Since the Third Plenary Session ofthe Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the strategicfocus of China's reform and opening up has also changed from south to north. Thedevelopment and revitalization of Pudong has brought Shanghai to the forefrontof China's reform and opening up. The spring breeze has awakened Shanghai Bund,which has been sleeping for many years. Chinese and foreign financialinstitutions have also seized the Bund. Shanghai has made a major move to "cleanup the nest and attract Phoenix", replacing the houses on the Bund FinancialStreet, attracting "old customers" at home and abroad to settle down again,showing the style of "Wall Street" in the Far East again.
The Bund is a symbol of Shanghai and a must for Chinese and foreigntourists. But in the past, because of the narrow road and the crowded traffic,the overall image of the Bund was seriously affected. In order to change theappearance of the Bund, the Shanghai People's government takes the Bund as a keypoint to transform. The road in front of us is called Zhongshan Road. It isnamed in memory of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the pioneer of China's democraticrevolution. It is also part of the comprehensive transformation of the Bund. Theroad is 826m long and 45m wide with 6 to 10 lanes. This wide traffic line is notonly limited to the Bund area, but also extends with the pace of reform andopening up. It starts from Jiangwan Wujiaochang in the north and ends at NanpuBridge in the south. By the beginning of the next century, the North-SouthCorridor will be 15 kilometers long and will become a landmark of Shanghaitourism.
The riverside road we are taking now is quite unique. It not onlyintegrates culture and greening, but also is a good place for people to practicewriting and martial arts in the morning, a place for tourists at home and abroadto visit in the daytime, and an ideal place for lovers to have a love talk inthe evening. It is said that many foreign friends have come to experiencelife.
Ladies and gentlemen, strolling in the new Bund Sightseeing Area, do youfeel that the new Bund not only has a new look, but also has a strong artisticatmosphere in the bustling city. Let's see: an artistic landscape with the themeof "for tomorrow" is set on the Bund of Yan'an East Road, embracing with sixcolumns and combining with the meteorological signal station with a history ofmore than 80 years to form a group of scenery. The customs building and theelectronic waterfall clock are also quite new. The electronic waterfall clock isa ladder type, 27 meters long and 3.5 meters high, with 10 full steps. The wholeoperation process is controlled by computer. There are more than 1000 jets ofwater in various colors of Arabic numerals, which makes the world so far awayand so close to each other. The tourist area has become a scenic line ofShanghai style culture that can accommodate hundreds of rivers.
Huangpu Park is facing the famous Huangpu River at home and abroad. "Theyellow water in Huanglongpu on the moon" vividly depicts the color of HuangpuRiver. Jiangpu river is the mother river of Shanghai. It originates from TaihuLake in Wuxi. It is the longest, widest and deepest river in Shanghai, with atotal length of 114 km, an average width of 400 m and a depth of 7-9 M. Itsoriginal name is Dongjiang, also known as chunshenjiang and huangxiejiang. It issaid that in the 20th century___ Many years ago, Shanghai belonged to the stateof Chu at that time. At that time, there was a great general named Huang Xie inthe state of Chu. He was very talented in governing the country. He wasappointed prime minister by the king of Chu and was granted the title of"fengshenjun" to govern the land of Shanghai. Due to the siltation of the upperreaches of Dongjiang River at that time, he led the people of Shanghai to dredgeand modify the waterway, which greatly developed Shanghai's water transportationand agriculture. In order to commemorate Huang Xie's achievements, latergenerations changed the name of Dongjiang River to "chunshenjiang" and"huangxiepu", which was not officially named "Huangpu River" until the SouthernSong Dynasty.
Overlooking the other bank, Pudong Lujiazui financial and trade zone andPuxi Bund are facing each other. Its functions are finance, trade and foreignservices. It will be the core and symbol of new Shanghai. "East Bund" BinjiangAvenue, with a total length of 2500 meters, integrates tourism, sightseeing andentertainment, along which there are six distinctive squares. Although I canonly smell the rumbling sound of piling, it is the most gorgeous movement on thestaff and predicts a better future for the Bund.