West Bund

The region sits on the bank of the Huangpu River and is characterized by vast open spaces and numerous water channels that have allowed such industrial centers and national enterprises as the Longhua Airport, Shanghai Nanpu Railway Station, Beipiao Coal Wharf, and Shanghai Cement Factory, just to name a few, to flourish. Shanghai Nanpu Railway Stat... ion (1907-2009) was constructed in the 33rd year of Emperor Guanxu's reign of the Qing Dynasty, and served as one of only three stations for water-land transportation in the country. After the Mukden Incident, the station was renamed Rihui Port Station and was utilized for passenger transport instead of freight. Later, during the Battle of Songhu, the station resumed its previous role and managed to transport both passengers and freight. In the 1950s, the station was again renamed as Shanghai South Railway Station. In the 1980s the station was rebuilt with an attached wharf, becoming the only station on the Shanghai railway system to have a wharf component at the time. The site of the Longhua Airport (1917-2008) was first used as a riverside training ground for the Beiyang Army under the Republic of China beginning in 1915. An airfield was constructed alongside the training ground and barracks, eventually developing into a large-scale airport in 1917. The birthplace of Chinese civil aviation, it became the first large-scale airport in China and the longest-servicing airport in the world. In 1922, it was known as "Longhua Aviation Harbor" and served as the headquarters of Air China and the Eurasia Aviation Corporation. In the 1940s, Longhua Airport was the largest international airport in East Asia, and in 1949 it was from this airport that Ms. Song Meiling, wife of the ROC leader Chiang Kai-shek, fled the mainland. In 1952, Longhua Airport once again rose to historical significance, serving as the site for the Shanghai Military Commission's Civil Aviation Administration station. The Shanghai Cement Factory (1920-2009) was founded by Mr. Liu Hong, an industrial ...Read More