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Bund center
Shanghai, bund hotel Shanghai, bund in Shanghai,
bund riverside hotel Shanghai, bund Shanghai
China, China bund, huangpu Shanghai, on the bund
Shanghai
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Shanghai Bund
Embracing the Bund's Art Deco magnificence on one side and
the steel-and-glass postmodernity of the Pudong side on
the other, the view from the Huangpu River evokes Shanghai's
identity in the past and now.
In the 1920s and '30s, Shanghai,
with its reputation as a freewheeling nexus of international
money and culture, was easily the most cosmopolitan city in
the country and maybe in Asia at all.
After Japan invaded in 1937, it became
increasingly unlivable, although the International
Concession (composed of the former U.S. and British zones)
remained beyond hostile control until December 1941, and the
French Concession was effectively independent even after
that.
Established in the mid-19th century, the
"concessions" were autonomous foreign sectors with their
own legal and military systems.
Following years of civil war, on May 24, |
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1949, the Communists finally "liberated" Shanghai. The area then became the focus of
intense ideological indoctrination, to the extent that it
later formed the main power base of the 1966-76 Cultural
Revolution.
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