Shanghai has plenty of ways to get from the colonial-era waterfront to the sci-fi towers of Pudong. There's the metro, there are ferries, and then there's the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel — a small driverless pod that runs under the Huangpu River while lights, projections and sound effects wash over the carriage. It's kitschy, a bit surreal, and genuinely unlike any other river crossing you'll take.
The tunnel links the two sides of the city that define Shanghai's look. On the west bank sits the Bund, a roughly 1.5-kilometre promenade lined with 52 historic buildings in styles ranging from Gothic and Neoclassical to Art Deco — leftovers from the area's days as one of Asia's great financial hubs. Names to look for include the Peace Hotel, Customs House, the Bank of China building and the former HSBC building, a cluster that forms one of the most distinctive street fronts in China.
Directly across the water, Pudong answers with the modern skyline: the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Shanghai Tower and their glass-and-steel neighbours. The contrast is the whole point of the Bund. Daytime is good for architecture; evenings are when both banks switch on their lights and the waterfront becomes one of the city's great free spectacles.
If you want more time on the water itself, Huangpu River cruises run along the same stretch and give you both skylines from the middle of the river. The tunnel, by contrast, is less about views and more about the experience — a short, glowing ride through an underground light show that kids tend to love and adults either embrace or roll their eyes at. Either way, it deposits you in Pudong ready to explore, and it's cheap enough that trying it once costs almost nothing.
A smart itinerary: walk the Bund in the late afternoon, catch the buildings lighting up at dusk, then take the tunnel across to Pudong for dinner with a skyline view — and ride the metro or ferry back. You get the historic side, the futuristic side, and one gloriously odd piece of Shanghai infrastructure in between.
For travellers, this is an easy add-on to any Shanghai stopover or city break. It's centrally located, walkable, and pairs naturally with the riverfront evening routine that most visitors already have planned. Source: SilverKris.
