The Bund area of Shanghai is thick with history, as are many places in China’s vast landscape. The birth of the Bund began with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking. The peace treaty was signed in 1842 at the end of the first opium war. The Treaty of Nanking allowed foreign trade (predominantly British) to move into the port cities of China. One of those cities was Shanghai. The treaty changed China’s overseas trading rules and had a huge impact on the country’s foreign relations for decades to come. Soon after the treaty signing, the British who were already in China settled along the banks of the Huangpu River and set up shop. American and French businessmen soon followed to put down roots in the Bund as well, but the French later moved south to what became the Shanghai French Concession, or the French Bund. The British and Americans eventually consolidated their settlements and named the area the Shanghai International Settlement in 1863. The area later became known as simply, the Bund.