On April 30th, at the North Bund main market of the Shanghai International Coffee Festival, the German Linde marveled, \There is a unique feeling when strolling through the coffee festival at North Bund—the scenery and culture here are both top-notch.\

Standing at the timeline of May 2025 and looking at the North Bund, this 4-square-kilometer hot land indeed does not lack \top-tier\ presence——

The world's living room made a \peak\ debut and has now become a venue for major international events and forums; every construction milestone of the 480-meter new landmark in Puxi under construction will become a hot topic for online and offline \supervisors\; the phenomenon-level cultural tourism brand Aranya announced a partnership with Haiti North Bund to create a \city micro-vacation\ leisure destination, immediately sparking heated discussions among the city's literary and artistic youth...

The North Bund, together with the Bund and Lujiazui, forms the \Golden Triangle\ of Shanghai, and is the only strategic space in the central urban area that can be planned and developed in large areas.

After the approval of the \Beifutou Area Control Detailed Plan\ in 2020, Hongkou District set a development goal of \forming an image in three years, shaping functions in five years, and basically completing construction in ten years\, positioning Beifutou as a \new benchmark for urban development in the new era\.

The \top-tier\ phenomenon lies in the fact that over the past five years, the North Bund has not only seen its skyline change rapidly but has also promoted the enhancement of global resource allocation capabilities through high-level openness, becoming a new engine for Shanghai to strengthen its core functions as a global city.

Shipping Energy Level Transition: From Physical Hub to Rule Maker

\ are witnesses to the development and construction of the North Bund, and also participants,\ said Luo Haifeng, General Manager of Pacific International Lines.

PIL is an internationally renowned shipping company that entered the Chinese market relatively early. It established a branch in Hongkou in 1997, relocated its headquarters to Hongkou in 2012, and purchased the China regional headquarters building in the North Bund.

Last year, Hongkou District achieved a GDP growth of 8.2% for the whole year, ranking first in the city in terms of growth rate, with the shipping industry contributing 4 percentage points. Pacific International Lines (PIL) achieved a revenue scale of 12.54 billion yuan for the year, with an increase of 103.3%, driving 1.48 percentage points for the city's freight forwarding industry, making it the enterprise with the largest revenue volume, the fastest growth rate, and the highest proportion in Hongkou's shipping agency industry.

The rapid development of Pacific International Lines relies on the fact that over the past five years, the shipping map of the North Bund has completed a leap from \quantitative change\ to \qualitative change\.

Among the top 50 global shipping companies, 17 have established headquarters or branches here, including giants such as Mediterranean Shipping Company, COSCO Shipping, and Hapag-Lloyd. A total of 14 of the world's top 50 freight companies have set up headquarters or branches in Hongkou, with leading global freight companies like雷诺斯、汉宏、希杰 successively establishing their Greater China headquarters in the North Bund area.

More noteworthy is that the North Bund has become one of the \originators\ of global shipping rules: the country's first foreign-related maritime temporary arbitration case was adjudicated here, the \Export Container Freight Index Compilation Specification\ released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange has become an important reference for international shipping pricing, and the Xinhua·Baltic International Shipping Center Index is exploring the addition of green and low-carbon weights, exporting the \Chinese standard\ to the world.

The green transformation of the North Bund has also led industry changes. Since 2024, the North Bund has successively established the North Bund International Shipping Green Development Community and the Shanghai Maritime Bureau's Ship Energy Efficiency Management Center, and will continue to deepen cooperation with the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, playing the role of professional institutions in strengthening and reinforcing the industry chain.

In this context, the Shanghai Maritime Bureau's Ship Energy Efficiency Management Center is the first carbon emission reduction management institution for Chinese-flagged vessels established by the Ministry of Transport. The person in charge of the Shanghai Maritime Bureau's Ship Energy Efficiency Management Center told reporters, \In response to the international goal of net-zero emissions, on the one hand, we improve the regulatory framework and construction of industry standard systems for ship energy efficiency management in our country; on the other hand, we carry out energy efficiency and carbon intensity management for Chinese-flagged international voyage ships, and participate in international exchanges and cooperation related to ship energy efficiency and carbon intensity management.\

Shanghai Port Group Energy, which is located in Hongkou District and serves as the main body for the construction and operation of the Shanghai Port Green Energy Center, has put into operation China's first methanol bunkering service ship. In the future, it will accelerate the layout of green methanol, LNG and other clean fuel supply chains for ships, and further promote the use of green transportation tools such as pure electric ships.

Currently in the North Bund, the focus is on the industrial map of five major green and low-carbon fields, including the carbon market, green shipping, green finance, green technology, and green trade, increasing the attraction of leading and chain-leading enterprises, and it is expected to reach a scale of hundreds of billions of industries in the future.

Financial technology integration: From building economy to headquarters concentration area

\Choosing the North Bund was due to its wealth and asset management highland's agglomeration effect,\ said Gao Song, General Manager of Orient Wealth Financial Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. \The Shanghai Asset Management Association, as well as many funds, banks, and insurance companies are all here, making it very convenient for us to conduct business.\

Amundi Asset Management Group is headquartered in Paris and is a leading global asset management company. Last year, with the promotion and support of Hongkou District, it established the country's first wholly foreign-owned financial technology company in the North Bund - Amundi Fintech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Gao Song told the reporter that after the establishment of the company, it quickly successfully signed the first order in the Chinese market. This project is also one of the symbolic implementation projects of the \Ninth Sino-French High-Level Economic and Financial Dialogue Joint Situation Explanation\ between the two countries' heads of state.

From the establishment of the first public fund in Hongkou in 2011 - Caitong Fund in North Bund, to the landing of the Shanghai Asset Management Association in North Bund in 2022, and then to the fifth largest global insurance asset management - Canada's Manulife setting up its China headquarters in North Bund in 2023, Hongkou's finance has achieved a leapfrog development from \nothing to something, from something to new\. Today, it has gathered more than 2,100 wealth management enterprises with an asset management scale of 8 trillion yuan, and North Bund's wealth and asset management highland is accelerating its formation.

As one of the first equity investment clusters in the city, the North Bund has established a \technology - industry - finance\ virtuous cycle system, serving to promote the joint development of Shanghai's international financial center and international science and innovation center.

The North Bund Raffles where Amundi is located is also the Shanghai Financial Technology Park. Currently, the park has gathered dozens of key financial technology companies such as Amundi, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank's Fintech, and JD Digits. A batch of quantitative private equity companies such as Minghong Investment and Mingshi Fund have also successively settled in the North Bund, leveraging their accumulation in the field of artificial intelligence to explore and develop financial technology, injecting new momentum into the innovative development of the financial industry.

Last year, Bo Tai, a national-level \little giant\ enterprise specializing in vehicle networking, settled in the North Bund and has applied for over 6,000 patents. The company's head was deeply impressed by Hongkou's financial support: \Hongkou accurately matches the needs of our enterprise, focusing on recommending relevant banks and other financial institutions for in-depth cooperation with us, and introduces financial policy products such as quality standard loans to meet the development needs of our enterprise, promoting its innovative development.\

Under the impetus of high-tech companies such as Botai Connected Vehicles and Zhijing Technology, as well as functional institutions like the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange and the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, key innovative elements such as technology, talent, data, and scenarios are accelerating their convergence. The development level of the Beiwaitan Science and Innovation Headquarters Cluster continues to improve, forming a new growth pole for the development of new quality productive forces in Hongkou.

Just recently, the Danish Hydraulic Institute's wholly-owned subsidiary in China - Danhua Water Environment Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. - has settled in the North Bund. General Manager Zhou Chi said: \It is the rich financial and technological atmosphere of the North Bund that has attracted us.\

Cultural and historical empowerment: The path of industry-city integration in the Central Activity Zone

As the new growth pole of Shanghai's urban development, the challenge and highlight of the development of the North Bund lie in the \integration of the old and the new.\ The North Bund, which is almost the same age as the opening of Shanghai, is not simply about building high-rise buildings on flat ground after old urban renewal. This central activity area, rich in port cultural resources and historical accumulation, also bears the mission of continuing historical context.

Not long ago, at the North Bund main market of the Shanghai International Coffee Culture Festival, the foot traffic exceeded 500,000 in four days, setting a new record over the years. What many people enjoy talking about is that, historically, North Bund has a very deep connection with coffee, running through the history of Shanghai's coffee culture development.

The Astor House Hotel (now the China Securities Museum), established in 1846, was the earliest modern hotel in Shanghai, taking the lead in integrating a coffee room with guest rooms and restaurants, opening a window for the spread of coffee culture in Shanghai. In 1886, the \Hongkou Cafe\ located in the area of today's Dongdaming Road, specifically served foreign sailors and expatriates, and achieved success with its geographical advantage and precise positioning. It was also presented with a thank-you flag by sailors, becoming a microcosm of cultural exchange between China and other countries.

Not only the International Coffee Festival, but also over these five years, the historical and cultural resources of the North Bund have been continuously activated and endowed with contemporary significance, thereby transforming into a development advantage.

In the second half of 2021, the Beiwaitan through-connection and comprehensive renovation project was completed, and the Yangtze River Wharf section was officially opened to the public. Unlike traditional conference halls, the two conference buildings in the \World Reception Hall\ were transformed from century-old warehouses. Leveraging new digital technologies, the century-old warehouses have been accurately restored to their historical appearance from the outside to the details; including 460,000 old bricks, nearly 80% of the historical elements have been reused, extending the historical sense of the cultural heritage of old buildings in Beiwaitan.

Now, the world's living room has become a regular open space for the public. Tobias, a Belgian who speaks fluent Shanghainese, feels the most about the blend of history and modernity here. \The North Bund is becoming more and more beautiful! It makes people feel the temperament of Shanghai's 'inclusiveness'.\

In October 2022, the outstanding historical building, Leithhead College, which has stood for nearly a century, was renovated and transformed into a new non-profit scientific research institution - Shanghai Institute of Innovation and Design. As a key part of the innovation matrix, it promotes the transformation of innovative achievements through more than 20 large enterprise joint laboratories, a joint international chain leader D.Transformer incubator, and an \Design Universe\ ecological talent platform with more than 300 annual events. It empowers design and accelerates the industry to build the infrastructure for innovation to emerge in the era of artificial intelligence.

In April this year, not far from the Shanghai Institute of Innovation and Creative Design, the first batch of international talent apartments in the North Bund was put into use. Liu Zhe Wen, who is stationed in Shanghai's branch office from the Singapore headquarters, said: \This place is quiet amidst the hustle and bustle, with convenient transportation and complete supporting facilities, making it an ideal residence for international individuals. I enjoy jogging along the riverside, strolling around the Magnolia Plaza, and then attending a concert at the North Bund AIA Tower Grand Theater.\

Data shows that Hongkou District's actual foreign investment growth rate ranked first in the city last year, and it continued to maintain a double-digit growth rate in the first quarter of this year. There are nearly 2,000 foreign-funded enterprises in the district, involving 75 countries and regions. As a key project in the \five-year shaping function\ of the development and construction of the North Bund, Ascott Serviced Residences and YaYu Residences have become important carriers for attracting high-end talents and enhancing regional vitality.

A cadre in Hongkou still remembers that before 2020, it took nearly 3 hours to walk from the Waibaidu Bridge to the Qinhuangdao Road Dock, constantly detouring along the way. Now, this journey takes only half an hour on foot, where one can see the water, enjoy the scenery, preserve memories, and touch the future.

A hundred years ago, the North Bund was the starting point for \Chinese people to open their eyes to the world.\ Standing at the forefront of the new era, the North Bund is striving to climb to the \top flow\ on the path, and is committed to creating an important showcase of Chinese-style modernization, which is jointly built, shared, and governed by the people.