Shanghai odyssey - The Bund - China Faces West

The Bund, Shanghai's landmark waterfront, is again in the limelight as a charismatic destination for life's finest pleasures. This book goes far beyond the facades of this Esplanade's famous buildings, such as the former Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank and the art deco Cathay Hotel where Noel Coward wrote 'Private Lives', examining the esplanade's fascinating historical and social context, profiling many key figures who made the Bund and who are remodeling it today. The Bund, once the 'Wall Street of Asia', continues to define and mirror Shanghai's spectacular ambitions and fortunes. This book tells the story of the making of the Bund from its beginnings as a muddy foreshore and its conversion into a fine esplanade in the latter-half of the 19th century to its modern day revitalization as a world-class centre for fashion and lifestyle. The main focus is on the early part of the 20th century and particularly the redolent years of the 1920s and 1930s when most of the Bund's monumental edifices were built as lasting testament to the city's commercial success.