Cruise control brings Bund closer to tourists
By Miao Qing (China Daily)Updated: 2006-07-27 16:52
When people think of the Bund in Shanghai, thoughts turn to the barges
chugging along the Huangpu River and architecture that is a reminder of time
when life was slower and less intense.
Most tourists to China's largest
commercial centre go to the Bund, but if they are aboard an international cruise
ship, their first impression of Shanghai is anything but idyllic.
The
ships have to anchor at the Waigaoqiao Port, which mainly handles container
ships, and passengers then have to be transported to the Bund and the rest of
city they've read about in the travel guides.
In 2002, the municipal
government took steps to change this. It chose an area along the northern bank
of the Huangpu as the site for a project that will serve as the mainland's
premier gateway for the cruise industry. The port will allow tourists better
access to Shanghai, and it will also serve as a place where more Chinese set off
on international voyages.
The large-scale redevelopment is situated in
Hongkou District and covers an area of 3.66 square kilometres, stretching 2.2
kilometres along the waterfront. Known as the North Bund, it is just a couple of
kilometres from the Bund that tourists know so well.
The jewel in the
crown of this project will be a gigantic international passenger terminal, which
developers hope will help catapult the city to the status of global cruise
centre.
The plans sound futuristic, but in fact its origins are rooted in
the past. In 1845, the British East India Company started to build wharves along
the Huangpu River in Hongkou District, and in 1886 the North Bund received its
first visiting international vessel from the United Kingdom.
"The Huangpu
River beside the North Bund has a water depth of 9-13 metres, which made it a
good natural harbour for vessels," said Du Shanjin, director of the North Bund
Development Project Office.
While the North Bund was the starting point
for Shanghai's extraordinary development in the following years, the area itself
was strangely left behind.
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