Great Northern Telegraph Company Building, Telegraph building in Huangpu District, China.

The Great Northern Telegraph Company Building at No. 7 on the Bund is a four-storey stone building with a symmetrical grey facade. Its ground floor has arched openings and a central entrance beneath a small balcony bearing a crest, with gold lettering mounted above. The second and third floors have rows of rectangular windows, the lower row topped by pediments, and the building is crowned by a dark roof with two rounded corner pavilions.

The Great Northern Telegraph Company rented the original building on this 724-square-metre Bund plot in 1881 and installed Shanghai's first telephone switch there in 1882. The present building, designed by Atkinson & Dallas, was delayed when a fire in October 1905 destroyed its roof, third floor and attic; it finally opened in January 1908. The British Eastern Extension and American Commercial Cable telegraph companies also kept offices here.

The building represents how early telecommunications shaped Shanghai's connection to the wider world, allowing the city to participate in global information exchange through telegraph and telephone services.

The building sits at a central location on the Bund and is surrounded by walking paths and other historic structures along the waterfront, making it a natural point on architectural routes. Access is straightforward since it stands at a well-known address visible from other monuments in the area.

The building opened in January 1908 with three separate Bund entrances, one for each telegraph company housed inside: the Danish Great Northern, the British Eastern Extension and the American Commercial Cable. Public telephones stood in the ground-floor hall, and a pneumatic tube system carried telegrams between rooms.