| The statue of Chen Yi 陈毅, first Mayor of Shanghai under the People's Republic of China, is framed by two of the signature landmarks of the Bund: the Sassoon Mansion (1929) and the Bank of China (1937). The Sassoon building is 253 feet to the roof line and 272 feet to the spire. The Bank of China is 227 feet.
Victor Sassoon lived in a penthouse near the top of the the Sassoon Mansion, while the top floor under the pyramid was a restaurant. The first floor had shops, the second through fourth had leased office space and the Cathay Hotel had the next three floors. It is now the north wing of the Peace Hotel.
The Bank of China building is now a branch of the Bank of China. This used to be the head office. The bank was founded in 1912 in Shanghai to handle increasing world trade. By charter, it specialized in international finance and exchange, while the Bank of Communications specialized in national industrial finance. Both banks now have new towers in the Pudong District.
Palmer and Turner, Shanghai, designed the Sassoon Mansion and worked jointly with Lu Qianshou to design the Bank of China.
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