The Chinese documentary film "The Bund", which is dedicated to the Shanghai World Expo, was screened to a limited audience last week in Beijing.

Directed by Zhou Bing, the film chronicles different stories that happened over the period between 1843 and 1945 at the Bund in Shanghai. It focuses on five stories from five different people who all lived in Shanghai during the specified time period.

The five people chronicled the film are:

1. Ye Chengzhong, one of the first Chinese business tycoons who started a business by selling hardware to the British merchant fleet;

2. Robert Hart, a British consular official in China who served from 1863 to 1911 as the second Inspector General of China's Imperial Maritime Custom Service (IMCS);

3. Zhou Xuan, a famous Chinese singer and actress from the 1930s and 1940s;

4. Yamaguchi Yoshiko, better known as Li Xianglan, a China-born Japanese singer and actress from the 1930s and 1940s;

5. Du Yuesheng, a gang boss from the early period of the 20th century.

Director Zhou Bing is well-known for his documentaries like "The Forbidden City" (2003).

"The Bund" also has a longer five-episode TV version which includes more actual footage from different periods. The film version focuses more on the historical characters who are portrayed by modern film stars.

The Bund stretches one mile along the western bank of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. It is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai for the 52 buildings of various architectural styles once housed numerous banks and trading houses from the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Russia, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and Belgium.

"The Bund" will hit screens at the Expo Garden and across China in August.