View of the Shanghai Pudong District
Two very different night views of Shanghai exist along the Huangpu River. Along the banks of the Puxi side of the river is the Bund promenade. Bund is a German word meaning muddy river bank, a name given during the colonial era of the mid 1800s. The buildings along the Bund riverside are very European in nature and were constructed during the 1800s when European influences and people were prevelant in Shanghai. The Bund buildings remind me of those along Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan along Central Park. These buildings are well-lit at night with exterior lighting and quite striking to see. When standing on the Bund promenade, the night view of the Pudong skyline across the river is an entirely different site to behold. The modern skyline of Pudong gleams with views of the Pearl Tower and many of the tallest buildings in the world.
As I mentioned previously, the Huangpu River divides Shanghai into the districts of Puxi and Pudong. Puxi is the oldest part of Shanghai and contains the many longtangs (older residential neighborhoods with narrow alleyways) mixed in with more modern development. Like the rest of China, the old and new are intermingled everywhere within Puxi. On the other hand, Pudong is predominantly a newer and modern district of Shanghai, and it contains three of the highest buildings in the world – the Shanghai Tower, the Jin Mao Tower, and the Shanghai World Financial Center.
Below are night view images of the Bund buildings and the Pudong skyline. Click on any of the images below to trigger a “lightbox” presentation — doing so really brings the photos to life.
Images of Shanghai at Night
bund, china, nanjing lu, nanjing street, people's park, people's square, pudong, puxi, shanghai, shanghai night
