Xuhui Binjiang

The West Bund — Xuhui Binjiang — is an 8-kilometre stretch of the Huangpu River south of the Bund, formerly occupied by a coal-unloading dock, industrial facilities, an aviation museum, and fuel storage tanks. The Shanghai municipal government initiated a systematic cultural development programme from 2011 that has progressively converted these industrial structures into museums and arts venues, while building a continuous riverside public walkway.

The Long Museum West Bund, which opened in 2014 in a converted coal-hopper facility designed by Atelier Deshaus, holds one of the most significant private collections of contemporary art in China. The building itself — a long shed with concrete coal-loading gantries preserved as structural elements within the galleries — is a considered piece of adaptive architecture. The museum's programme mixes Chinese contemporary work with international loans.

Tank Shanghai occupies five former aviation fuel tanks, each 20 metres in diameter, that were adapted to create a performance and installation art venue. The tanks' circular form and industrial materiality are well-suited to large-scale immersive works.

The Yuz Museum, in a converted 1950s aircraft hangar, focuses on international contemporary art and has hosted significant exhibitions including works that have toured from Western institutions. The combination of these three major private museums within walking distance of each other makes the West Bund corridor a genuinely substantial cultural destination.

The public waterfront itself — the walking and cycling path along the river — is one of Shanghai's most pleasant civic spaces: wide, well-maintained, varied in character between the different museum sections, and with continuous water views across to the Pudong bank.