Shanghai

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About Shanghai

Few skylines tell a story as fast as Shanghai's. Stand on the Bund among early 20th-century banks and trading houses, then look across the Huangpu River at the glass towers of Lujiazui, almost all of them built in the last three decades. With nearly 25 million residents, this is China's largest city and its financial engine.

Shanghai grew from a cotton and fishing town into a treaty port after the First Opium War, and the foreign concessions left behind banks, villas and shikumen lane houses that still shape its streets. Today the old city around Yu Garden, the plane-tree avenues of the former French Concession and the alleys of Tianzifang sit beside major museums, art spaces and a famous food scene, from soup dumplings to sweet braised pork.

Pudong and Hongqiao airports and a dense high-speed rail network connect the city with the rest of China, and its metro is one of the longest in the world. Canal towns such as Zhujiajiao make an easy day out, while Suzhou and Hangzhou are a short train ride away.

Best seasonApril-May and October-November

Ideal stay3-4 days

ArrivingPudong or Hongqiao airport; high-speed rail to Hongqiao station

Your Shanghai Bucket List: 12 Top Picks

Landmarks 1

The Bund

The riverside promenade on the west bank of the Huangpu River is lined with dozens of grand buildings in Gothic, Neoclassical, Bea...

History 2

Yu Garden

A classical garden first laid out in the Ming dynasty in the 16th century, with rockeries, carp ponds, carved halls and the prized...

Zhujiajiao Water Town

In Qingpu district on the western edge of Shanghai, this canal town of stone bridges, whitewashed houses and narrow lanes grew ric...

Viewpoints 2

Shanghai Tower

At 632 metres, this twisting glass tower in Lujiazui is the tallest building in China. High-speed lifts carry visitors to an obser...

Oriental Pearl Tower

Finished in the 1990s, this TV tower with its stacked pink spheres became the first symbol of the new Pudong district and still an...

Museums 1

Shanghai Museum

On People's Square, in a building shaped like an ancient bronze ding cauldron, this museum holds one of the finest collections of...

Shopping 1

Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street

Running west from the Bund toward People's Square, East Nanjing Road is one of the busiest shopping streets anywhere, packed with...

Neighborhoods 3

Tianzifang

A maze of narrow lanes off Taikang Road, Tianzifang grew from a cluster of shikumen stone-gate houses and small factories into a w...

Shanghai Former French Concession

Plane-tree avenues such as Wukang Road, Hengshan Road and Fuxing Road preserve a calm, leafy side of Shanghai full of villas, apar...

Xintiandi

Restored shikumen lane houses in this pedestrian quarter now hold restaurants, bars, galleries and shops, making it one of the mos...

Temples and Shrines 2

Jade Buddha Temple

This active Buddhist temple in Jing'an takes its name from two white jade Buddha statues brought from Burma in the late 19th centu...

Longhua Temple

The largest and one of the oldest temple complexes in Shanghai stands in Xuhui district beside a seven-storey octagonal pagoda tha...

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