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The former British Consulate, which is now the No.1 Rockbund. Photo: Li Yuting/GT


Possibly the most prestigious address in the city, the Bund has certainly witnessed the ebb and flow of Shanghai history over the last 100 years or so.

And just off the North Bund is the not so-well-known, but equally interesting, Yuanmingyuan Road. Barely 460 meters long it connects Nansuzhou Road to Dianchi Road.

The road's 14 historic buildings have been renovated thanks to the American Rockefeller corporation and a Chinese partner.

The street is now an impressive commercial hotspot that includes museums, high-class hotels, luxury brands shops, restaurants and office space. Given the name "Rockbund," the "origin of the Bund" (as it is being marketed) has become Shanghai's latest visitor destination.

Former British Consulate

If you stop at the crossroads leading to the Garden Bridge of Shanghai, you will see a typical English style villa and garden. This is the former British Consulate located at 33 Zhongshandongyi Road, (which is also now the No.1 Rockbund). Legend has it that all of the other Bund buildings were designed within the consulate walls.

The consulate building features a five-arch verandah on the ground floor with a raised terrace facing the garden. The facade boasts a portico beneath a colonnaded loggia (gallery or corridor). Even though it was rebuilt in 1873 after a fire destroyed the building in 1870, it still remains the oldest building in the Bund area.

Protected as one of the Bund's National Cultural Heritage Sites and as an Excellent Historic Building of Shanghai as judged by the Shanghai municipal government, the building is today used as the Financiers' Club, and is only open to private club members.

However, the surrounding gardens are accessible, and are definitely worth a stroll around. Among the 27 mature trees are some Camphor trees. Most of the trees are more than a century old. The south of the garden also contains the relics of a small cannon which was used by the military during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) in order to fight off foreign invaders.