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The City That Refuses to Stand Still
Shanghai sits on China‘s eastern coast, cradled between the Huangpu River and the flat delta plains of the Yangtze. It is the most populous city in China — and arguably its most contradictory. Within a single afternoon you can stand beneath a colonial-era British customs house, cross the river to walk among skyscrapers that make Manhattan look restrained, drink coffee in a French-concession villa, and eat soup dumplings in a laneway that has looked more or less the same for a century. Shanghai doesn’t ask you to choose between its layers. It stacks them on top of each other and dares you to keep up.
This is a city that was, for much of the twentieth century, one of the most cosmopolitan ports on earth — a chaotic, glamorous, morally complicated crossroads where fortunes were made and lost overnight. After decades of transformation under the People’s Republic, it has reinvented itself again as the financial and cultural engine of modern China, yet the bones of its earlier life keep pushing through the pavement. Art deco hotels, shikumen stone-gate houses, French plane trees lining cracked sidewalks — the past refuses to fully surrender here, even as cranes work through the night to build the future.
First-time visitors sometimes arrive expecting a generic megacity. They leave surprised by how human it feels at street level, how much there is to taste and explore, and how quickly it gets under the skin.
Neighbourhoods Worth Losing Yourself In
Shanghai’s character shifts dramatically from one district to the next, and navigating those shifts is half the pleasure of the city.
The French Concession
The former French Concession — centered around Huaihai Road and the leafy streets that branch off it — is where Shanghai’s café culture and boutique scene are concentrated. The neighborhood was ceded to French authority in the mid-nineteenth century and developed into a residential enclave for foreign merchants, White Russian émigrés, and wealthy Chinese families. That architectural legacy survives in elegant low-rise mansions, wrought-iron balconies, and streets shaded by London plane trees. Today the area is home to independent coffee shops tucked into converted houses, upscale restaurants, vintage clothing stores, and some of the city’s best cocktail bars. Wander down Anfu Road or Wukang Road on a slow morning and Shanghai suddenly feels intimate rather than overwhelming.
Jing’an
Just north of the Concession, Jing’an mixes temples, high-end shopping, and a surprisingly gritty residential core. The Jing’an Temple itself — a Tang dynasty original that has been rebuilt, bombed, and restored multiple times — now sits flanked by a luxury mall, which is either jarring or very Shanghai, depending on your perspective. The neighbourhood draws expats, gallery-goers, and anyone looking for good ramen, natural wine, or live jazz in a basement bar.
Xintiandi and Tianzifang
These two areas represent opposite approaches to Shanghai’s shikumen heritage. Xintiandi is polished and commercial — stone-gate lane houses converted into restaurants and international boutiques, popular for Sunday brunch crowds. Tianzifang, in the Old French Concession’s southern reaches, feels scrappier and more genuine: a labyrinth of narrow alleys filled with artist studios, ceramics shops, tea houses, and hole-in-the-wall noodle stalls. Both are worth seeing; just don’t expect the same energy from each.
Hongkou and the Jewish Refugee Quarter
North of Suzhou Creek, Hongkou is one of Shanghai’s least-visited neighbourhoods by tourists, which is precisely why it rewards exploration. During the 1930s and 1940s, the district absorbed roughly 20,000 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Europe — the only place in the world that accepted them without requiring a visa. The Ohel Moishe Synagogue now operates as the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, and the surrounding streets retain a weathered, unhurried quality that contrasts sharply with the polished south. Old men play chess on folding tables, wet markets spill onto sidewalks, and the architecture ranges from art deco apartment blocks to crumbling lane houses.
Pudong
Across the Huangpu from the Bund, Pudong was farmland until the early 1990s. Now it contains some of the world’s most recognizable skyscrapers, the Shanghai Tower (the second-tallest building on earth), and Lujiazui’s dense forest of glass and steel. It’s not a neighbourhood for wandering in the conventional sense — the pedestrian experience is often hostile — but it is essential for understanding Shanghai’s ambitions and its relationship with scale.
The Bund and Beyond — Landmarks Built for Different Centuries
The Bund is Shanghai’s most famous stretch of waterfront, a kilometre-long promenade lined with neoclassical and art deco buildings constructed between the 1860s and the 1930s. Banks, trading houses, hotels, and consulates jostled for river frontage during the city’s colonial heyday, and the result is a remarkably cohesive streetwall of stone facades, colonnaded entrances, and copper-domed rooftops. The Customs House clock tower still chimes. The former Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation building, now a Bund finance museum, still commands the center of the row.
Walk the Bund at different times of day and you get different cities. At dawn, elderly residents do tai chi along the railing as cargo ships move silently downstream. By midday, tour groups pack the riverside walkway and the light flattens everything. At dusk, the Pudong skyline begins its nightly light show and the neoclassical facades glow gold — it’s theatrical in a way that can’t quite be dismissed even by the most jaded traveler.
A ten-minute walk north brings you to Suzhou Creek, where warehouses converted into galleries and design studios line both banks. The M50 creative cluster on Moganshan Road has been Shanghai’s main contemporary art hub for decades, though gentrification has pushed some of the edgier galleries further out. Still, an afternoon moving between studios here, ending with coffee on one of the creek-side terraces, is hard to improve on.
In the Old City — the area that predates the foreign concessions — the Yu Garden and its surrounding bazaar represent the most visited Chinese heritage site in town. The classical garden itself, built by a Ming dynasty official in the sixteenth century, is genuinely beautiful: pavilions, rockeries, koi ponds, and moon gates arranged with careful asymmetry. The commercial streets surrounding it are unashamedly touristy, but they also sell good xiaolongbao and decent green tea if you know where to look past the souvenir shops.
What to Eat and Where to Eat It
Shanghai cuisine — benbang cai in Mandarin — is rooted in a few defining techniques: braising with soy sauce and sugar, smoking, and salt-curing. The results tend toward rich, sweet, and deeply savory. This is not the fiery food of Sichuan or the bright, herb-driven cooking of the south. Shanghainese food is about depth, patience, and umami built up over long cooking times.
Xiaolongbao
The soup dumpling — a thin wrapper encasing seasoned pork and a pocket of hot gelatin-turned-broth — is the city’s most famous export. The technique of eating one correctly (bite a small hole, sip the soup, then eat the rest) is worth learning before your first sitting. Nanxiang Mantou Dian in the Yu Garden area is the tourist-famous option; Din Tai Fung is the reliable Taiwanese chain with consistent quality; but the best xiaolongbao most locals will point you to are found in smaller neighborhood shops in Jing’an or the Old City where turnover is high and the wrappers are made fresh every few hours.
Shengjianbao
Less celebrated internationally but arguably more addictive, the pan-fried bun is Shanghai’s true street-food icon. Thicker-skinned than its steamed cousin, the shengjian is pressed onto a cast-iron pan with sesame seeds and scallions, then fried until the base crisps and caramelizes while the filling steams inside. Yang’s Fry-Dumplings has branches across the city and the queues are almost always worth joining.
Red-Braised Pork
Hong shao rou — pork belly braised low and slow with soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine, sugar, and ginger until the fat turns unctuous and the skin nearly dissolves — is the signature Shanghainese home dish. Every restaurant serves it, and the variance between a mediocre version and a great one is enormous. Look for places where it comes in individual clay pots, which suggests it hasn’t been sitting in a bain-marie.
The Wider Eating Scene
Shanghai’s restaurant landscape extends well beyond benbang cai. The city has one of the most sophisticated dining scenes in Asia, with serious French kitchens, boundary-pushing Chinese tasting menus, excellent Japanese restaurants (the largest Japanese expat community in China lives here), and a street food culture spanning Xinjiang lamb skewers to Taiwanese bubble tea to Yunnanese rice noodles. The morning dim sum scene around Yunnan Road is worth an early alarm. The night markets along Wujiang Road fill with snack vendors by 9pm. Julu Road has become a reliable corridor for creative Chinese cooking with natural wine pairings — a very Shanghai combination.
Nightlife, Arts, and the City After Dark
Shanghai’s after-dark economy is vast, genuinely diverse, and often excellent. The city has historically been more permissive than Beijing in its cultural life, and that relative openness has produced a nightlife and arts scene that runs deeper than its reputation for rooftop cocktail bars might suggest.
The cocktail bar scene is legitimately world-class. Bar Constellation in Jing’an is one of the best whisky bars in Asia, full stop. Speak Low, hidden above a cocktail equipment shop in the Old French Concession, operates across three floors with a different mood on each. The Long Bar at the Waldorf Astoria occupies the original Shanghai Club ballroom on the Bund, with a marble counter that stretches nearly 34 meters — one of the longest bars in the world when it was built in 1910. None of these require reservations; all reward arriving before 10pm.
For live music, Yuyintang in Jing’an has been the anchor of Shanghai’s independent music scene for years, hosting local punk and indie acts alongside international touring bands. The JZ Club near Fuxing Park does reliable jazz seven nights a week. House and techno have found a serious home at clubs like Elevator and Sound, both drawing regional DJs who would be headlining in Berlin or Amsterdam.
Shanghai’s contemporary art scene clusters around M50, the Rockbund Art Museum near the Bund, and the Power Station of Art — a former power plant in the Huangpu district that now functions as the city’s main public contemporary art museum. The Shanghai Biennale, held every two years, draws international curators and transforms the city’s gallery spaces. Even outside Biennale years, the Power Station mounts ambitious shows that rival what you’d see in major European institutions.
For something more traditionally Chinese, the Yifu Theatre near People’s Square stages Peking opera and Shanghainese opera (hu ju) most evenings. The productions are long and stylized, but even an hour of watching the costumes, the face-painting, and the acrobatics is a complete sensory experience.
Getting Around Shanghai
Shanghai’s metro is one of the largest and most efficient urban rail networks on the planet. With over 20 lines and more than 500 stations, it connects virtually every part of the city with clean, air-conditioned trains running at frequent intervals from roughly 5:30am to 11pm. Signage is bilingual throughout, making navigation easy for non-Mandarin speakers. A single-trip card or the rechargeable Shanghai Public Transportation Card (available at station service windows) covers metro, buses, and some ferry services. Keep a line map screenshot on your phone — the official Metro Da Du Hui app has an English version.
Taxis remain abundant and relatively inexpensive by global-city standards. The official metered cabs — Dazhong and Qiangsheng are the most reputable fleets — are preferable to ride-hailing apps like Didi if you don’t have a Chinese phone number, though many hotels can help set up the app. Always have your destination written in Chinese characters; most drivers speak little English.
The Huangpu River ferry is underused by tourists and entirely worth the few yuan it costs. The crossing between the Bund (near Jinling Road) and Pudong takes about five minutes and gives you the full skyline view from water level — better than any observation deck photograph.
Cycling has staged a comeback via dockless bike-share (Meituan Bike and Hello Bike are the main operators). Within the French Concession and Jing’an, where streets are human-scaled and traffic moves slowly, a bike is often faster than a taxi and always more enjoyable. Use WeChat Pay or Alipay to unlock them — this requires a Chinese bank account or a foreign credit card linked to WeChat, the latter being increasingly easy to set up at the border.
The Maglev train connects Pudong International Airport to Longyang Road metro station in eight minutes, reaching 430 km/h — fast enough that the acceleration alone is worth experiencing. From Longyang Road, connect to metro lines heading into the city center.
Day Trips Worth the Ride
Shanghai sits at the geographic and transport hub of the Yangtze Delta, making it an ideal base for exploring one of China’s most culturally dense regions. High-speed rail and road access put several remarkable destinations within two hours.
Suzhou
Half an hour by high-speed rail, Suzhou is the classical garden capital of China — nine UNESCO-listed private gardens built between the Song and Qing dynasties, each a meditation on the relationship between architecture, water, rock, and plant. The Humble Administrator’s Garden is the largest and most visited; the Garden of the Master of Nets is smaller and better preserved. Outside the gardens, the old city’s canal network, silk museums, and covered pedestrian streets make for a full day. Arrive early; garden crowds peak sharply by 10am.
Hangzhou
About 45 minutes by fast train, Hangzhou has been called the most beautiful city in China by various Chinese emperors and poets across the centuries — a claim based almost entirely on West Lake, a 6-square-kilometer freshwater lake ringed by temples, pagodas, and causeways planted with cherry and willow trees. The lake is best experienced by renting a rowboat or cycling the outer causeway at dawn. Hangzhou is also the heart of Longjing (Dragon Well) green tea production; the tea fields above the lake are open to visitors in April during the first flush harvest. Day-trip timing is tight but manageable; an overnight stay gives you the lake at dusk and morning, which is when it earns its reputation.
Zhujiajiao
The closest water town to Shanghai — roughly an hour by direct bus from People’s Square — Zhujiajiao is more tourist-oriented than the canal towns further afield, but it remains a reasonable introduction to the region’s waterway architecture: stone bridges, whitewashed houses cantilevered over dark water, boats moving slowly through narrow channels. It works best as a half-day outing before returning to the city for dinner.
Tongli
About 80 kilometers from Shanghai, Tongli takes slightly more planning but repays the effort. Smaller and less commercialized than Zhujiajiao, the town is built on five islands connected by 49 bridges and is home to the Tuisi Garden, a compact masterpiece of classical landscape design. Visiting on a weekday, particularly in winter or early spring, you may find streets that feel genuinely inhabited rather than staged for tourism.
Practical Tips for Visiting Shanghai
Visas and Entry
Citizens of many countries — including the United States, United Kingdom, European Union nations, Australia, and Canada — are eligible for China’s 144-hour (six-day) transit visa exemption if entering and exiting through Shanghai and traveling to or from a third country. This allows meaningful exploration of Shanghai and nearby cities without a full Chinese visa. For longer stays, a standard tourist visa (L visa) must be obtained in advance through a Chinese consulate. Requirements and eligibility change periodically, so verify with the consulate or a visa service before travel.
Internet and Connectivity
China’s internet firewall blocks Google, most social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter), and many news sites. Download a reliable VPN before entering the country — setting one up inside China is significantly harder. WeChat functions normally without a VPN and is essential for navigating daily life: payments, maps, restaurant menus via QR code, and communication with locals all run through it. Consider registering for WeChat before arriving and linking a payment method if possible.
Currency and Payments
The currency is the Chinese Yuan (¥, CNY, or RMB). Mobile payments via WeChat Pay and Alipay dominate almost every transaction — from wet markets to high-end restaurants — and some vendors no longer accept cash at all. Foreign visitors can now link international Visa and Mastercard cards to WeChat Pay’s international version, which covers most basic needs. ATMs remain available at banks and international hotels for cash withdrawals. Keep some cash for emergencies, taxis, and older vendors in markets who haven’t adopted digital payment.
When to Visit
Spring (March through May) and autumn (September through November) offer the most temperate weather, with temperatures ranging from 10°C to 25°C (50°F to 77°F) and manageable humidity. Summer (June through August) is hot, humid, and subject to typhoon-adjacent rain systems; temperatures frequently exceed 35°C (95°F). Winter is cold and damp — rarely freezing, but with a bone-deep chill made worse by poor insulation in many older buildings. The weeks surrounding Chinese New Year (late January to mid-February) see massive domestic travel surges and partial closures; unless experiencing the festival itself is a priority, it’s a difficult time to visit as a tourist.
Language and Basic Etiquette
Mandarin is the common language, with many Shanghainese also speaking the local Wu dialect (Shanghainese), which is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin. English is spoken in hotels, upscale restaurants, and by younger residents in international-facing areas, but cannot be assumed elsewhere. Having key addresses, restaurant names, and questions written in Chinese characters on your phone is invaluable. Translation apps like Google Translate (with VPN) or Baidu Translate work well for real-time conversations.
Etiquette is generally relaxed for foreign visitors, who are extended considerable patience. Tipping is not customary and can cause awkwardness in traditional establishments. Bargaining is expected in markets but not in shops with fixed prices. Pointing at menu photos is entirely acceptable, as is gesturing for the check — which you do by mimicking writing on your palm.
Shanghai rewards those who arrive with some patience and an appetite for complexity. It is not a city that reveals itself on the first day, or even the third. But somewhere between the soup dumplings, the art deco facades, the late-night jazz, and the peculiar feeling of standing on the Bund watching two centuries of history facing each other across sixty meters of dark water — something clicks, and the city makes a kind of sense that’s hard to explain and easy to remember.