When people think of the Bund in Shanghai, thoughts turn to the barges chugging along the Huangpu River and architecture that is a reminder of time when life was slower and less intense.

Most tourists to China's largest commercial centre go to the Bund, but if they are aboard an international cruise ship, their first impression of Shanghai is anything but idyllic.

The ships have to anchor at the Waigaoqiao Port, which mainly handles container ships, and passengers then have to be transported to the Bund and the rest of city they've read about in the travel guides.

In 2002, the municipal government took steps to change this. It chose an area along the northern bank of the Huangpu as the site for a project that will serve as the mainland's premier gateway for the cruise industry. The port will allow tourists better access to Shanghai, and it will also serve as a place where more Chinese set off on international voyages.

The large-scale redevelopment is situated in Hongkou District and covers an area of 3.66 square kilometres, stretching 2.2 kilometres along the waterfront. Known as the North Bund, it is just a couple of kilometres from the Bund that tourists know so well.

The jewel in the crown of this project will be a gigantic international passenger terminal, which developers hope will help catapult the city to the status of global cruise centre.

The plans sound futuristic, but in fact its origins are rooted in the past. In 1845, the British East India Company started to build wharves along the Huangpu River in Hongkou District, and in 1886 the North Bund received its first visiting international vessel from the United Kingdom.

"The Huangpu River beside the North Bund has a water depth of 9-13 metres, which made it a good natural harbour for vessels," said Du Shanjin, director of the North Bund Development Project Office.

While the North Bund was the starting point for Shanghai's extraordinary development in the following years, the area itself was strangely left behind.

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