Shanghai Old City
With its shaded alcoves, glittering pools churning with fish, plus pavilions, pines sprouting wistfully from rockeries, and roving packs of Japanese…
Shanghai Old City
With its shaded alcoves, glittering pools churning with fish, plus pavilions, pines sprouting wistfully from rockeries, and roving packs of Japanese…
The Bund & People's Square
Symbolic of concession-era Shanghai, the Bund was the city’s Wall Street, a place of feverish trading and fortunes made and lost. Originally a towpath for…
Shanghai
One of Shanghai’s few active Buddhist monasteries, this temple was built between 1918 and 1928. The highlight is a transcendent Buddha crafted from pure…
Shanghai
China’s tallest building dramatically twists skywards from its footing in Lujiazui. The 121-storey, 632m-tall, Gensler-designed Shanghai Tower topped out…
French Concession
Tianzifang and Xintiandi are based on a similar idea – an entertainment complex housed within a warren of lòngtáng (弄堂, alleyways). Unlike Xintiandi,…
French Concession
With its own namesake metro station, Xintiandi has been a Shanghai icon for over a decade. An upmarket entertainment and shopping complex modelled on…
The Bund & People's Square
This must-see museum escorts you through the craft of millennia and the pages of Chinese history. It's home to one of the most impressive collections in…
Shanghai
Shanghai may be known for its glitz and glamour, but it's got an edgy subculture too. The industrial M50 art complex is one prime example, where galleries…
Shanghai
With the original temple dating back to AD 1216, the much-restored Jing'an Temple was here well before all the audacious skyscrapers and glitzy shopping…
Shanghai
This 468m-tall globe-on-a-tripod tower is the most iconic contemporary building in the city, and its image is omnipresent around town – from postcards to…
Shanghai Natural History Museum
Shanghai
It's not quite on the same scale as Washington, DC's Smithsonian, but this sleek space is nevertheless as comprehensive as it is entertaining and…
The Bund & People's Square
Originally opened as the Shanghai Race Club in 1934, and having undergone several incarnations since, this iconic building now houses the Shanghai History…
Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall
The Bund & People's Square
Set over five levels, this modern museum covers Shanghai's urban planning history, tracing its development from swampy fishing village to modern-day…
Shanghai Museum of Public Security
French Concession
This offbeat and macabre museum over three floors details how the Chinese authorities keep control. Display cases depict the illicit activities local cops…
The Bund & People's Square
Housed in the magnificent former Royal Asiatic Society building (1932) – once Shanghai's first museum – this world-class gallery behind the Bund focuses…
French Concession
Design junkies and history buffs will love this vast collection of original posters from 1950s, ’60s and ’70s China, stored in the basement of a…
Shanghai
Designed by renowned Japanese architect Ando Tadao, the Aurora Museum is set over six floors of the Aurora building and houses a stunning collection of…
Shanghai
Disney has magicked-up a spectacular theme park in Shanghai, offering a subtly Chinese take on Mickey and Co. Six themed areas encircle Disney’s biggest…
Shanghai
One of the M50 art precinct's most creative, thought-provoking, interactive and engaging galleries is island6. Artist Liu Dao showcases his work and that…
Shanghai
If you tire of Shanghai's incessant quest for modernity, this tiny town is only a hop, skip and metro ride away. An ancient settlement that prospered…
Shanghai World Financial Center
Shanghai
Although trumped by the adjacent Shanghai Tower as the city’s most stratospheric building, the awe-inspiring 492m-high Shanghai World Financial Center is…
Ohel Moishe Synagogue & Jewish Refugees Museum
Hongkou & North Shanghai
Originally built by the Russian Ashkenazi Jewish community in 1928, this synagogue lies in the heart of the 1940s Jewish ghetto. In 2007 it was restored…
Shanghai
Shanghai's oldest and largest monastery is named after the pipal tree (lónghuá) under which Buddha achieved enlightenment. Trees are decorated with red…
Shanghai
The hulking monolith of the Shanghai Exhibition Centre was built in 1955 as the Sino-Soviet Friendship Mansion – a friendship that soon turned sour and…
The Bund & People's Square
The neoclassical Custom House, established at this site in 1857 and rebuilt in 1927, is one of the most important buildings on the Bund. Capping it is Big…
Shanghai
The attractive Jing'an Sculpture Park contains a mix of permanent and temporary pieces created by mainly international artists. The sculptures are…
Hongkong & Shanghai Bank Building
The Bund & People's Square
Adjacent to the Custom House, the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank Building was constructed in 1923. The bank was first established in Hong Kong in 1864 and in…
The Bund & People's Square
Like a smaller, more condensed version of the Bund, the pedestrianised, cobblestone Yuanmingyuan Rd is lined with a mishmash of colonial architecture…
The Bund & People's Square
The original British Consulate was one of the first foreign buildings to go up in Shanghai in 1852, though it was destroyed in a fire and replaced with…
Shanghai
A huge development for Shanghai's contemporary art scene, this enormous gallery is housed in the former hangar of Longhua Airport and sprawls over 9000 sq…
Hongkou & North Shanghai
This pleasantly restored but sleepy street of fine old houses, just off North Sichuan Rd, was once home to several of China’s most famous writers (as well…
Shanghai
The spacious 200 acres of gardens here offer an escape from Shanghai’s synthetic cityscape. The floral displays are truly impressive, especially during…
Hongkou & North Shanghai
Particularly photogenic in spring and summer when the trees are in blossom, Lu Xun Park is one of the city’s most pleasant green spaces. It was originally…
Hongkou & North Shanghai
Writer Lu Xun's final residence was this three-floor domicile on lovely Shanyin Rd, where an excellent English-speaking guide can fill you in on his life…
Shanghai
Resembling an art deco take on a pagoda, this crystalline edifice is a beauty. It’s essentially an office block with the high-altitude Grand Hyatt renting…
Shanghai
The impressive Liu Haisu gallery exhibits works of the eponymous painter (one of China's earliest modern artists) and displays international contemporary…
Guangfulini Ancient Relics Park
Shanghai
This enormous archaeological park is built around the ancient relics of Songjiang and spans nearly three miles. You'll need a day to properly experience…
Hongkou & North Shanghai
An excellent museum, this modern hall charts the life and creative output of author Lu Xun with photographs, first editions, videos and waxworks. Detailed…
Shanghai Old City
Sheltering a community of dark-brown-clothed monks from the Chenhai (Sea of Dust) – what Buddhists call the mortal world, but which could equally refer to…
The Bund & People's Square
Linking the Bund with People’s Square is East Nanjing Rd, once known as Nanking Rd. The first department stores in China opened here in the 1920s, when…