Highlighting the Bund as Shanghai looks to the future

One of the things I loved about living in Shanghai was that it's a very walkable city. Beijing is great, but often times my girlfriend and I finish dinner and would like a nice outdoor stroll before heading home. Where to go? Hou Hai is noisy, touristy, and tacky. The quaint hutongs in Qianmen have largely been demolished. And walking along Second Ring Road doesn't really do it for me, surprise surprise.

But Shanghai was much different. Sure, you had the tourist-ridden Bund waterfront and Nanjing Lu. But the French concession, Suzhou Creek area, and People's Square were nice places to wind down an evening (or start your morning, depending on the time of day). I also enjoyed my morning walk to work from the Hengshan Lu subway station to Zhaojiabang Road, traversing streets filled only with pedestrians and delicious xiaolongbao steaming in bamboo baskets. What made it different from Beijing (in this one particular neighborhood near Hengshan Lu) was the lack of cars, honking, and noise (at least in comparison to Beijing).

So it is with a smile that I read Richard Spencer's latest dispatch in the Daily Telegraph today. He reports that the Bund waterfront is getting a makeover, and one that will turn the classical strip into a more pedestrian friendly venue:

The city's government has begun a £280 million scheme to divert the motorway that separates the Bund's neo-classical buildings from the Huangpu river into a tunnel, and demolish the flyover that disfigures the view.

Most dramatically, the 100-year-old steel bridge across Suzhou Creek at the north end will be removed, taken to a local shipyard for renovation, and then replaced.

The move is a smart one, and one other cities could consider implementing. For years, in Vancouver, people have been asking for Granville Street, one of its main downtown thoroughfares, be turned into a pedestrian-only street. City Hall has resisted, not sure how it would re-route traffic. But I'm certainly not the only person to say our priorities should be with the pedestrian -- and not pollution-spewing vehicles. Let the drivers figure it out, I say.

Beijing would do well to scrap cars from Nanluoguxiang. The area has become Beijing's answer to Khao San Road in Bangkok, yet Nanluoguxiang can barely hold the crowds of people it often draws at night, let alone the cars that honk their way down the alley, shoving backpackers and locals aside.

The revamped Bund, which the city hopes to have completed prior to the Expo in 2010, should be a nice addition to the city, and further re-energize the area. Not that it needs it, according to Spencer:

In many ways, the government is following the market. In recent years, Chinese and international developers have refurbished many of the buildings. The HSBC building had the plasterwork which concealed its celebrated mosaic ceiling removed, and is once again home to a bank.

Number Three is home to Armani, an Evian Spa and a number of expensive restaurants. Cartier has taken over the ground floor of Number 18, whose top floor is the city's most fashionable nightclub.

Thirty of the buildings have protected status, while the renovation of the bridge will turn attention to the Astor House Hotel and Shanghai Mansions, Art Deco haunts of the city's pre-war glitterati.

Suzhou Creek itself, once known only for its smell, being cleaned, and the warehouses alongside it are being turned into art venues.

The renovation comes as the city is starting to revel in the sort of reputation for sophistication and glamour - as well as vice - that it enjoyed in the pre-war years, which are themselves being recreated in recent films like The White Countess and The Painted Veil.