A traveler's guide to Shanghai
Shanghai is easy for a first trip to China and still enormous. Pick a side of the river for your hotel and cross on purpose.
Shanghai is China's most international city and still deeply itself in the lanes and the breakfast shops. The Bund is the arrival photo. The trip is a neighborhood, a soup dumpling eaten correctly, and the river at night from the ferry rather than only from a bar.
When to go
Spring and autumn are the comfortable walking seasons. Summer is hot, wet, and sticky. Winter is gray and damp rather than snowy. Golden Week and the lunar new year move a lot of people. Check the dates.
Neighborhoods
The Bund and the old western streets for the first day. The French Concession for plane trees and lunch. Jing'an if you want walking distance to dinner. Pudong for the towers and not much street life. The older neighborhoods north of the center reward a slow morning.
Eating
Xiaolongbao, scallion oil noodles, and a breakfast of soy milk and fried dough if you are brave and hungry. Shanghainese food is sweeter and more braised than the north. Eat where the room is loud.
If you only remember this
- Metro is the way. Taxis and rideshares fill the gaps.
- Translation apps help. English is uneven outside hotels.
- Mobile pay is the local default. Set it up if you can.
- Air quality and rain both change the walking plan. Look outside.