Shanghai's Bund by Luxury Car

The promenade from Huangpu Park south

Begin at Huangpu Park & Monument to the People's Heroes, at the north end of the promenade. Three tapering concrete columns stand on a low plaza, with the mouth of Suzhou Creek and the Peninsula behind you. Entry is free, and the park is the easiest place on the waterfront for a car or a coach to gather a group before the walk.

Step up onto the Bund (Waitan) Promenade and the shape of the place is clear at once. The walkway runs above the river on its stone embankment, lined with round lamp posts, the 1920s banking houses on one flank and the Lujiazui towers across the water on the other, lit after dark. It is unticketed public space with no gate and no door policy, and any group size works.

Waibaidu Bridge (Garden Bridge) crosses Suzhou Creek beyond the park, two 52-metre spans of riveted steel truss, free and always open. The grey-painted lattice frames the Peninsula and Broadway Mansions. Traffic uses the bridge as well as pedestrians, and the walkways either side are narrow. Photograph it from the Huangpu Park side.

Bund 12 and the museum in the park

SPD Bank Building (former HSBC Building), Bund 12 (12 Zhongshan East 1st Road) has a domed octagonal entrance hall of marble columns. The 1923 ceiling mosaics show zodiac signs and world port cities, and they were rediscovered under plaster in 1997. It is a working bank, so view the lobby quietly during banking hours and keep the visit discreet. Free guided visits run on weekdays and are booked through the bank's own channels. Photography is at the guards' discretion.

The Bund History Museum (475 Zhongshan East 1st Road) is a compact low-rise pavilion inside Huangpu Park. Its dim rooms hold sepia photographs of the waterfront, old street signs and scale models of the riverside. Admission is free, and it opens 09:00 to 16:00 on weekdays only, with nothing on public holidays. The rooms are tiny, so split a party of more than 10.

Rockbund and Yuanmingyuan Road

Rockbund Art Museum (20 Huqiu Road) occupies the 1932 Art Deco building of the former Royal Asiatic Society, a cream terracotta facade behind lattice screens. White gallery floors stack up a narrow stair to a rooftop terrace that looks over the old Bund roofs. Admission has been free since May 2025. You can walk in between Wednesday and Friday. Weekends and public holidays need a time slot from the WeChat mini-programme or the on-site queue, and the slot is booked one person at a time. The museum closes on Mondays and admits members only on Tuesdays.

% Arabica Shanghai Roastery (169 Yuanmingyuan Road) is an all-white room with a standing counter, on the ground floor of the 1920s Associate Mission Building. Its glass frontage faces a pedestrianised brick street of red-brick heritage blocks, and the only seating is a short outdoor spill. Hours are 08:00 to 20:00 Monday to Thursday, 08:00 to 21:00 Friday to Sunday. ¥.

Where to eat between stops

Three on the Bund (3 Zhongshan East 1st Road) fills the 1916 Union Building, pale stone with arched ground-floor windows and glass-walled upper dining rooms that look straight across the river. Jean-Georges, which holds a Michelin star, is on the fourth floor, and other restaurants work the other floors of the same building. Private rooms make it the realistic lunch stop on a car day. Reserve well ahead. ¥¥¥¥.

Lost Heaven on the Bund (17 Yan'an East Road) serves Yunnan food over two floors of dark timber and carved screens, with red lanterns, Tibetan textiles and long communal tables under low pendant lights. Lunch runs 11:00 to 13:30 and dinner 17:30 to 22:00. The room is large enough for a full car party at one table. Reservations are strongly advised. ¥¥.

Bars and terraces along the Bund

Long Bar at Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund (2 Zhongshan East 1st Road) is on the lobby level of the former Shanghai Club. The reconstructed 34-metre mahogany bar bends into an L under a coffered ceiling, with leather club chairs and an oyster counter behind it. It opens 17:30 to 01:00 Sunday to Thursday, and to 02:00 on Friday and Saturday. ¥¥¥.

The Jazz Bar at Fairmont Peace Hotel sits inside the green-pyramid-roofed hotel, a dark wood-panelled 1920s room with brass lamps and a small stage. The Old Jazz Band, octogenarian and in dinner jackets, plays from 19:00, and the bar runs 18:00 to 00:00 daily. Entry is ¥418 per head, redeemable against food and drink. Tables are small, so reserve ahead for a party of more than six. ¥¥¥¥.

Roosevelt Sky Bar at The House of Roosevelt (Bund 27) opens at 14:00 and runs to 02:00 every day, on the eighth-floor terrace of a 1920s trading house. Half of it is glasshouse, half an open deck of daybeds and lounge seats, with an unobstructed line along the Bund to the Lujiazui skyline. It is quieter and more grown-up than the trend rooftops. Book the open half for the skyline seats. ¥¥¥.

Sir Elly's Terrace, The Peninsula Shanghai wraps the 14th floor at the Bund's north end in stone, planters and low sofas, with a 270-degree sweep over the Bund, Suzhou Creek and Hongkou. The terrace bar runs 17:00 to 00:00, and to 01:00 on Friday and Saturday, weather permitting. Smart dress is expected. The terrace is small and a reservation is needed. ¥¥¥¥.

ROOF at The Shanghai EDITION (199 Nanjing Road East) is a 29th-floor open-air lounge under an ivy-covered timber trellis, with rattan seating and a full panorama of Pudong beyond the Bund rooftops. Afternoon tea is served 14:30 to 17:00 and the bar runs 17:30 to 00:00. Book online, or by phone through the hotel. ¥¥¥.

Crossing the river and the Yu Garden stop

Bund Sightseeing Tunnel sends glass pod cars under the Huangpu through strobing coloured LEDs, lasers and inflatable figures. It costs ¥50 one way and ¥70 return. Running hours are 09:30 to 22:30 from mid-April to the end of November, and 09:30 to 21:30 in winter. Pods seat small numbers and load in sequence.

Yu Garden & Yuyuan Bazaar is the one stop on this day that is not on the waterfront. Ming-dynasty rockeries, zigzag bridges over carp ponds and upswept grey tiled roofs sit enclosed by the bazaar's lantern-hung gilded shopfronts. The garden opens 09:00 to 16:30, with last entry at 16:00, and closes on Mondays outside public holidays. The garden costs ¥30 to 40 and the bazaar is free. Go at opening; the garden paths are narrow.

Timing, tickets and whether a car earns it

Give the daylight half of the day to the places that shut early, which means the two free interiors and the garden inland. The bars and terraces open from mid-afternoon onward. The promenade can be walked at any hour.

Nothing on the waterfront itself charges at the door. Huangpu Park, the promenade, Waibaidu Bridge, the history museum, the bank lobby and Rockbund are all free to walk into. Everywhere you sit down has to be arranged in advance, plus a Rockbund slot if you come at the weekend. Car tours here book steadily, so book the car as early as you book the table.

A private car suits a visitor who wants the bank lobby, the small museum, Yu Garden and a Bund terrace inside one day without planning the transfers between them. It needs reservations made before you set out, and a weekday if the free interiors matter to you.

Best time to go

Walk the promenade twice in the same day, once in daylight for the banking houses standing behind it and once after dark, when the towers across the river are lit. Stay off the upper deck between Nanjing Road and Yan'an Road on a weekend evening, when it jams solid. Yu Garden wants the first hour after opening, and the free interiors want the middle of a weekday. If the evening is pinned on an open terrace, hold the lobby-level Long Bar as the fallback.

Before you go

Rockbund Art Museum and Yu Garden close on Mondays, Rockbund is members-only on Tuesdays, and the Bund History Museum keeps weekday hours and shuts on public holidays. Book the car, the lunch table, the jazz entry and any terrace seat before the day begins.

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