THE Bund area has been touched upon again and again in this column and the reason is easy to see - it is the epitome of Shanghai.

The locality is expressive not only in its old buildings, dating back to the so-called "good old days", but also in the new ones in the area which are peppy and full of go, catering to the diversified tastes of today's Shanghai.

But this week, let us indulge ourselves in a little nostalgia.

The Union Insurance Company Building located on No. 4 Zhongshan Dongyi Lu is no longer home to a "union" of insurance companies. Now it is wholly owned by the Singapore-based Shanghai Jiatong Real Estate Co.

The building we see today was completed in 1916 and belonged back then to a British-owned company which operated under a Chinese name - "Tianxiang". The company had exclusive rights to the maritime insurance industry in the late-19th century and as business was good, the company made a fortune.

The Sino-Japanese War of 1894 was a turning point leading ultimately to the breaking up of the monopoly and in its place, dozens of small insurance businesses occupied the site jointly. The property was renamed "The Union Insurance Company Building".

Covering a land area of 2,241 square metres, the building was designed by the Gonghe Firm, one of the leading architectural institutions in Shanghai in those days, headed by Dong Dayou. It was said that the Union Insurance Company Building was the first steel-framed building in Shanghai.

The facade was a full embodiment of the Renaissance style with all the features of symmetry, luxury and grandeur, while the outer decoration was in the Baroque style, with the whole design completed by two slender Ionic pillars.

The Mercantile Bank of India, London & China took over the building during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937-45). By the mid-1930s, most of the foreign-owned insurance companies had withdrawn hastily from the China and the Mercantile Bank of India, London & China promptly took up residence in the nearly empty property.

Actually, the Mercantile Bank of India, London & China was one of the first foreign banking operations in China but with far less influence than, say, the HSBC.

Most of its business was in currency exchange and retail banking and its paid-up capital was only one million pounds sterling, one third that of HSBC.

The bank had been the Mercantile Bank of India until 1892 and was registered as occupying No. 26 Zhongshan Dongyi Lu in 1920.

We know it was on the Bund in 1945, but there is no historical record to show when it quit Shanghai and, at this point, exactly what happened to the bank might remain a mystery forever. Vivian Wang