Shanghai, China

Evergreen city guide with quick facts, travel, business, and culture.

ChinaShanghai

Overview

Shanghai is China's financial capital and most cosmopolitan city — a metropolis where the early-20th-century Bund faces the futuristic Pudong skyline across the Huangpu River, and where the tree-lined lanes of the former French Concession coexist with some of Asia's tallest towers.

Waterfront Architecture & Skyline

The Bund's neoclassical banking palaces facing Pudong's supertall towers — one river bend that captures Shanghai's journey from trading port to global financial centre.

French Concession & Lane Culture

Plane tree-shaded boulevards, 1930s shikumen lane houses, independent cafes and cocktail bars, vintage boutiques, and the most walkable neighbourhood in any Chinese megacity.

Xiaolongbao & Shanghainese Cuisine

Soup dumplings, pan-fried buns, red-braised pork, scallion oil noodles, seasonal hairy crab, and a dining scene spanning Michelin-starred restaurants to bamboo-steamer street stalls.

Contemporary Art & Museums

The West Bund cultural corridor, M50 gallery district, Power Station of Art, Centre Pompidou outpost, and the Shanghai Museum's world-class bronzes and ceramics collection.

Classical Gardens & Old Town

Yu Garden's Ming-dynasty rockeries and pavilions, the Yuyuan Bazaar, City God Temple, and the remaining pockets of old Shanghai amid the metropolis.
Travel Overview

The Bund (Waitan) — a kilometre-long waterfront promenade lined with neoclassical, Art Deco, and Beaux-Arts banking houses from Shanghai's boom decades as the financial hub of East Asia — faces the Pudong skyline across the Huangpu River in a panorama that captures Shanghai's arc from regional trading port to global financial metropolis in a single glance. The Oriental Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center, and the twisting 632-metre Shanghai Tower (the world's second tallest building) cluster on the Pudong side, their observation decks offering vertiginous views over the river and city. The former French Concession, Shanghai's most walkable quarter, threads tree-lined boulevards — Wukang Road, Fuxing Road, Huaihai Road — through a neighbourhood of 1920s-30s lane houses (shikumen), independent cafes, vintage boutiques, and some of the city's best restaurants. Yu Garden (Yuyuan), a classical Chinese garden from the Ming dynasty, and the surrounding old town bazaar provide a dense, atmospheric pocket of traditional architecture in the city's commercial heart. Nanjing Road, the main shopping thoroughfare, stretches from the Bund west to the upscale malls of Jing'an district. The Jade Buddha Temple, Longhua Temple, and the Jing'an Temple anchor the city's Buddhist heritage amid the commerce. M50 and the West Bund cultural corridor — including the Long Museum, Yuz Museum, and the Pompidou Centre's Shanghai outpost — have made the city a serious contemporary art destination. The street food anchors it all: xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), shengjianbao (pan-fried buns), scallion oil noodles, and hairy crab in autumn.

Discover Shanghai

The Bund is Shanghai's most iconic promenade — a riverside walkway fronted by 52 buildings in styles ranging from neoclassical to Art Deco, built between the 1860s and 1930s when Shanghai was the financial hub of East Asia. The former HSBC Building (now the Pudong Development Bank), the Customs House with its clock tower, and the Peace Hotel (where Noel Coward wrote Private Lives) anchor the architectural ensemble. At night, both sides of the river illuminate: the Bund's stone facades glow gold while Pudong's towers pulse with LED displays. Cross the river via the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel (a kitsch but entertaining psychedelic ride) or the more practical ferry for a few yuan. On the Pudong side, the Shanghai Tower's observation deck on the 118th floor (at 546 metres, the world's highest enclosed observation deck) delivers a panorama over the entire Yangtze Delta on clear days. The Oriental Pearl Tower's glass-floored skywalk and the Shanghai World Financial Center's "bottle opener" top-floor bridge offer lower but equally dramatic perspectives.

Frequently asked questions

Shanghai is in mainland China, whose entry rules change periodically. Many nationalities can now enter visa-free for short stays under unilateral or transit-visa-free schemes, while others need a tourist (L) visa arranged in advance. Shanghai's airports also offer 24-, 72- and 144-hour visa-free transit for onward international travel. Check the current rule for your nationality before booking — mainland China and Hong Kong have separate entry systems.

Spring (March–May) and autumn (October–November) are the ideal months — mild and comfortable for walking the Bund and the French Concession. Summer (June–September) is hot and very humid, often above 35°C; winters are damp and chilly. Avoid the Golden Week holiday (1–7 October), when every attraction is packed; autumn is also hairy-crab season.

Three to four days suit the city: one for the Bund and the Pudong skyline; one for the French Concession's lanes, cafés and shikumen; one for Yu Garden, the old town and the West Bund art corridor; and ideally a day trip to the canal town of Suzhou (30 minutes by high-speed train) or Hangzhou's West Lake (1 hour).

Diplomatic missions in Shanghai

15 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.