Odyssey Guides: The Bund Shanghai

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Shanghai's landmark waterfront, the Bund, once the "Wall Street of Asia," is again in the limelight as a charismatic world-class destination for life's finest pleasures. This book tells the story of the making of the from its beginnings as a muddy foreshore and its conversion into a fine esplanade in the latter half of the 19th century, when its infamous "Public Gardens" barred entry to most Chinese, to its cosmopolitan reinvention with the dawning of the millennium. The main focus is on the vibrant years of the 1920s and 1930s when most of the Bund's monumental edifices were built as a lasting testament to the city's commercial success and symbolized the city's passage to sophistication and modernity. This book goes far beyond the facades of the buildings, examining the fascinating historical and social context of this area and profiling the many key figures and organizations that made the Bund in years gone by and that are remodeling it today. 140 photos, many in color, 5 maps