5 Days in Shanghai – The Bund @ Evening

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Ah! Shanghai’s most famous and popular sightseeing and photo-taking spot, that thankfully is also a huge area and free of admission fees. The waterfront stretch stretches roughly 1.6km, and the best spots for photography are undoubtedly squarely facing the modern skyscrapers of Pudong district. I last visited The Bund 7 years ago and also blogged about it briefly here, but that visit was on a foggy morning. The visit this time was in the evening with a very clear sky, and also just in time for the nightly laser light show.

My first impression: the number of skyscrapers in Pudong district has gone way up north. There was a point where the Oriental Pearl Tower – with its two distinctive spheres – was the tallest structure, before it was surpassed by the Shanghai World Financial Center, which was in turn was again surpassed by the recently completed Shanghai Tower just a few years back.

The pictures were taken on the newly acquired Olympus E-PL9 and the 12-40mm f2.8, handheld, and at ISO3200. The RAW files do contain obvious noise that isn’t evident from these web-sized JPGs.

The line-up of impressively lit-up buildings begin before you even get to The Bund, many of them swanky and pricey looking hotels.
The Oriental Pearl Tower on the left, the Shanghai Tower (lit up in yellow towards the right), and the Shanghai World Financial Center (the top floors lit up in purple) partially hidden by other skyscrapers in the foreground. The Shanghai Tower is a lot taller than the Pearl Tower at 632m vs 467.9m. It only looks the other way round because the Shanghai Tower is quite a bit further in the district and not near the waterfront that the Pearl Tower is.
Foreign Trade Building, formerly the Jardine Matheson Building. There are flood lights illuminating the buildings, and they switch colors every few minutes, making for visually interesting pictures.
Ever Bright Bank of China.
From left to right: Peace Hotel, Bank of China, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, and Agricultural Bank of China.  Source here.

The place was actually very crowded along this section of The Bund as it offers great views of Pudong district, though the crowds aren’t apparent from the pictures here because I’ve cropped them out.

Next post on the Oriental Pearl Tower!