Shanghai, between the Bund and the lane houses

It’s 6:32 a.m. on a quiet residential lane in the former French Concession of Shanghai and a man in pyjamas is walking a small dog past the wet market that’s just opened. The plane trees overhead — planted by the French in the 1920s — are losing their first yellow leaves of October. A grandmother is buying fresh hairy crabs from a basin on the pavement. A young man on an electric scooter is bringing dawn deliveries to a coffee shop. This is the Shanghai that the postcards never show, and that the city I keep returning for actually is.

Why I keep coming back

Shanghai is the most architecturally interesting Chinese city after, possibly, Beijing. The 1920s and 1930s Bund — the colonnaded river-front of British, French, American, and Japanese banks and trading houses — is one of the great Art Deco urban set pieces in Asia. The Pudong skyline opposite, built almost entirely since 1995, is one of the great late-20th-century urban experiments. And the former French Concession, the leafy residential district of the old foreign settlement, has been preserved largely intact and is now Shanghai’s most pleasant walking neighbourhood.

The food is the second great draw. Shanghainese cooking is sweeter and more delicate than Sichuan or Cantonese; the xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), the shengjianbao (fried buns), the drunken crab, the smoked fish, the cold red-cooked pork.

Where to base yourself

Former French Concession (around Wukang Road, Jianguo Road, or Fuxing Park) for the leafy streets and the best small restaurants.

The Bund for the postcard waterfront access.

Jing’an for a slightly more modern, business-district base with good food.

Avoid the Pudong as a base for more than a night — it’s a financial district with thin street life.

What to actually do

Walk the Bund at dawn. The classic Art Deco riverfront, with the Pudong skyline opposite. Best at 6:30 a.m. when the joggers and tai-chi practitioners are out and the tour buses haven’t arrived.

Spend a morning at the Shanghai Museum. One of the great Chinese-art museums; the bronze gallery and the ceramics galleries are the deep collections. Free entry; the queue is real at peak times.

Walk the former French Concession. Wukang Road, Anfu Road, Yongkang Road. Plane trees, small cafés, design shops, and former villas. Quiet on Sunday mornings.

Climb the Shanghai Tower observation deck. The world’s second-tallest building (632 m); the 121st-floor observation deck is the postcard view of Pudong and the city.

Visit Tianzifang. A small lane-house district turned into a maze of design shops, cafés, and small restaurants. Touristed; still atmospheric in the early morning.

Take the high-speed train to Suzhou or Hangzhou. 30 and 45 minutes respectively. Suzhou for the Ming-dynasty classical gardens; Hangzhou for the West Lake and the tea fields.

Where to eat

Din Tai Fung — Taiwanese, but the soup-dumpling reference standard. Jia Jia Tang Bao — A walk-in xiaolongbao shop, queue at the window. Yang’s Fry-Dumplings — Shengjianbao (fried dumplings); the bottom crisp, the top soft. Fu 1088 or Fu 1015 — Refined Shanghainese in heritage villas; the Shanghai banquet style. Lao Ji Shi — Old-school Shanghainese, the red-cooked pork. The Commune Social — A small-plate restaurant from chef Jason Atherton in Jing’an. Shake Shanghai — Modern Shanghainese-Western fusion; the kind of place 30-year-old Shanghainese take their parents.

When to come

Late September through October, or April through early May. The shoulder seasons; pleasant temperatures.

July and August are hot, humid, and crowded. December–February are cold and grey.

The Chinese National Day Golden Week (first week of October) is the worst possible time — domestic travel surge.

Practical notes

• Visa: China visa rules have changed repeatedly. The 240-hour transit-without-visa programme has expanded in recent years; many Western nationals can transit through Shanghai for up to 10 days visa-free. Check current rules.
• Money: Chinese yuan. Cash is increasingly rare; mobile payment via WeChat Pay and Alipay is universal. Foreign cards now work on Alipay (since 2024) which has made travel here significantly easier.
• Transport: The Shanghai Metro is excellent and signposted in English. Maglev train from Pudong airport is the world’s fastest commercial train (430 km/h) but only useful if you have airport luggage.
• VPN: Most Western services (Google, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, ChatGPT) are blocked in mainland China. If you need them, install a VPN before arrival.
• Pollution: Air quality in Shanghai is better than Beijing but still variable. Check the AQI before outdoor activities.

A final thought

Shanghai is the city that has, in some ways, most resembled the Western media stereotype of modern China — the skyscrapers, the Maglev, the LED skylines, the supertall towers — while quietly preserving more pre-1949 urban texture than any other Chinese city of its size. The former French Concession, walked on a quiet Sunday morning, feels closer to a 1930s European treaty port than to a 21st-century megacity.

The combination is what makes Shanghai compelling for a longer visit. Don’t spend your trip in Pudong. Spend it in the lane houses, in the gardens, on the Bund at dawn. Take the train to Suzhou. Eat a soup dumpling sitting on a small plastic stool. Walk slowly. The city is much larger and stranger than the skyline suggests.