Welcome & The Bund, Shanghai, China – April, 2004
Hello and welcome to Photography Journal where I’ll been compiling photographs of sites and sights I’ve encountered – and continue to encounter – across the Asia-Pacific region.
The first gallery I’m presenting is a series of photographs I took of The Bund, Shanghai, China, which has a fabulous collection of beautifully maintained and restored colonial architecture. As you may know The Bund, along the Huangpu River, was the centre of the Shanghai International Settlement when in the 19th and early 20th century European powers starting with the British flocked to the concession area and set up banks, trading houses and consulates. Following the Chinese civil war the buildings were converted to different purposes – the Gang of Four were influential players operating out of this area during the Cultural Revolution - with all monuments and statues of Western figures removed.
A truly grand collection of buildings, home to a fascinating history and changes of fortune from the glamour and decadence of the Western concessions in the 1920s to the civil war and cultural revolution, and back to the present day – if only walls could talk!
Click for Entire gallery collection
Ben
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