It used to be a barren shoal, and there was a narrow dirt road by the beach for boatmen to walk while pulling fibers. To the west of the beach is farmland, and huts are scattered between buildings and ditches. In the 23rd year of Qing Daoguang (1843), before British imperialism opened a concession in Shanghai, it first designated the river surface along the Bund as the "anchorage section" for its ships. 1845165438+1On October 29th, 830 mu of land west of the Bund was included in the British Concession through the Shanghai Land Charter. Since then, the colonial authorities have established the British Consulate in Li Jiazhuang (also known as Lijiachang, now southwest of Yuanmingyuan Road and a section of beijing east road near the Bund) (now the location of Shanghai Branch of China Travel Agency, No.33 on the Bund). Soon, Shaxun Foreign Firm, Renji Foreign Firm, Baocheng Foreign Firm, Qichang Foreign Firm and Tianchang Foreign Firm appeared in the south of the British Consulate on the Huangpu River. The fiber road near Huangpu River was transformed into a road with a width of18m at 1848. On the east side of the road, docks, stacks, banks and shipyards were built. During the period of 1854- 194 1, more than ten foreign banks and Chinese banks emerged and became the financial center of Shanghai, known as "Oriental Wall Street". The houses on the Bund started with two or three floors. Since the beginning of this century, due to the development of building technology and the growth of economic strength, there have been many floors and high-rise buildings with different styles, such as British classical style, British neoclassical style, British Renaissance Asia Building (formerly Shanghai Metallurgical Design Institute), Shanghai General Association (now Dongfeng Hotel), HSBC Building (formerly Shanghai People's Government Building) and Qihe Building (now Foreign Trade Bureau Building). French classical style, French luxury style and so on.