Shanghai
上海 · Shànghǎi
A 1920s waterfront staring across a river at the tallest skyline in Asia, with the best restaurant scene in China in between.
Photo: xiquinhosilva · CC BY 2.0
Shanghai was a fishing and cotton town until the Treaty of Nanking prised it open in 1842 and the British, French, Americans and Japanese carved out concessions along the Huangpu. For a century it was the most cosmopolitan and least Chinese-governed city in China — banks, opium, jazz, gangsters, White Russian refugees, and the founding congress of the Communist Party in a French Concession shikumen house in 1921. Then it went quiet for forty years.
It came back in 1990, when Pudong — farmland and warehouses across the river — was designated a special zone. Thirty-five years later that farmland holds the Oriental Pearl, the Jin Mao Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center and the 632-metre Shanghai Tower, the second-tallest building on earth. Standing on the Bund at night with the Art Deco banking houses at your back and that wall of light in front of you is the clearest single image of what China has done since 1980.
But the city to actually walk is the former French Concession: plane trees, 1930s villas, lane houses, independent coffee, and a restaurant density that has made Shanghai the country's undisputed food capital for anything that isn't regional home cooking. Give it three days and do not spend them all on observation decks.
Why go
- The most internationally legible Chinese city — easiest soft landing for a first visit
- China's best restaurant scene, from ¥8 soup dumplings to three Michelin stars
- Genuinely world-class museums, several of them free
- Two hours by rail from Suzhou, Hangzhou and the water towns
Highlights
The Bund at night
1.5 km of colonial-era banking architecture facing the Pudong skyline. Walk it after 19:00 when both sides are lit; the Waldorf and Fairmont Peace Hotel bars have the elevated views.
Shanghai Tower
632 m, the world's fastest lift (20.5 m/s), and an observation deck at 546 m. Go at dusk and stay through the light-up. Book a timed slot online.
Former French Concession
Wukang Road, Anfu Road, Fuxing Park, Tianzifang. Plane-tree streets, Art Deco apartment blocks, and the city's best aimless walking.
Yu Garden & the old city
A Ming scholar's garden of rockeries and ponds, surrounded by a rebuilt bazaar that is a tourist trap with excellent xiaolongbao at Nanxiang.
Shanghai Museum & Museum East
The original on People's Square for bronzes, ceramics and calligraphy; the vast new Pudong branch for the full collection. Both free, both need advance booking.
West Bund
A riverside strip of contemporary art — the Long Museum, Yuz Museum, Tank Shanghai in converted aviation fuel tanks. The best modern art cluster in the country.
Photographs
Getting there & practicalities
Getting there
Pudong (PVG) for long-haul, Hongqiao (SHA) for domestic and the high-speed rail hub. The Maglev runs Pudong to Longyang Road in 8 minutes at 300 km/h (¥50). Metro Line 2 links both airports.
Tickets
Shanghai Tower ¥180; Shanghai Museum free (book 7 days ahead); Yu Garden ¥40; most concession walking is free.
Opening hours
Museums typically 09:00–17:00 and closed Mondays. The Bund and Tower decks run late.
Best time of day
The Bund at dusk; the French Concession on a weekday morning; Yu Garden at 08:30 before the coaches.
What everyone gets wrong
- Get a transport QR code inside Alipay on day one — the metro is fast, cheap and covers everything.
- The Bund tourist tunnel is a genuinely terrible attraction. Take the ¥2 ferry across the Huangpu instead; it is better and 50 times cheaper.
- Shanghai's museums are free but ticketed, and release a week ahead. Book before you fly.
- Skip the Oriental Pearl. The view from Shanghai Tower is higher and the building is better.
- Summer is genuinely oppressive — 35°C at 90% humidity through July and August.
What to eat
- Xiaolongbao — soup dumplings. Jia Jia Tang Bao for the cheap perfect version; Din Tai Fung for the reliable one
- Shengjianbao, pan-fried and crunch-bottomed, at Yang's
- Hongshao rou — red-braised pork belly, the city's signature home dish
- Hairy crab from Yangcheng Lake, October and November only
→Combine it with
Nearby and next
UNESCO
Suzhou Classical Gardens 苏州园林
Nine gardens on the World Heritage list, each one a whole landscape compressed into a courtyard.
UNESCO
West Lake, Hangzhou 西湖
The most painted, poeticised and imitated lake in Asia — and a UNESCO listing for its influence on garden design across East Asia.
Wuzhen & the Water Towns 乌镇
Stone bridges, black-tiled waterfront houses and a canal grid that has been the Yangtze delta's transport system for 1,300 years.