Things to do in Shanghai

Landmark · Huangpu, west bank

A mile of 1920s banking and trading houses facing the Pudong skyline across the river — the image of Shanghai.

Local tip: The famous view is from the Bund looking east, and it is crowded at every hour. The better walk is the other way: go up onto the Pudong side at the Binjiang promenade around dusk, when the historic facades are lit and the crowds are all behind you.

Neighborhood · Xuhui and Huangpu, west of the old city

Plane-tree streets, 1930s villas and lane houses, and the densest concentration of independent cafés, bars and shops in China.

Local tip: Wukang Road gets the crowds and the photo queue at the Wukang Mansion. Walk two streets over to Ferguson Lane, Anfu Road or Yongkang Road for the same architecture with people actually living in it.

Culture · Xuhui riverside, south-west

A former industrial waterfront rebuilt as a run of major art institutions — the Long Museum, Yuz Museum, and the Centre Pompidou's Shanghai outpost.

Local tip: The riverside path between them is continuous, flat and largely empty on weekday mornings — one of the best runs in the city. The museums cluster their new shows in the November art-week window.

Food · Huangpu, behind People's Square

Two old food streets in the middle of the city — soup dumplings, scallion oil noodles, and Cantonese roast meats, at prices the Bund forgot.

Local tip: Go for breakfast rather than dinner. Shanghai's real eating culture is a morning one: shēngjiān bāo, cōngyóu bàn miàn and dòujiāng, eaten standing up before eight, and it is far better than anything the same streets serve at night.

Nightlife · Jing'an and Xuhui

Where Shanghai actually drinks — small cocktail bars, natural wine rooms and speakeasies behind unmarked doors, rather than the Bund's expense-account rooftops.

Local tip: The scene turns over fast; a bar that was the place last year may have gone. Ask a colleague what opened this month rather than following a two-year-old list.

Nature · Northern central, Putuo to Hongkou

A continuous riverside walkway along the industrial creek that made Shanghai, opened along its central stretch in recent years and still largely used by locals.

Local tip: The stretch through Putuo past the old M50 art warehouses and the 1930s mills is the interesting one, and almost no visitor ever finds it. Start at Changshou Road and walk east; there are new bridges and the old lock gates on the way, and a genuinely quiet city on a Sunday morning.