Shanghai: your top 3 recommendations?

am visiting Shanghai for the first time ever with some close friends, in several weeks' time.


i'd like to know from others who have been there: what were your three favorite activities or experiences there?


(alternatively, you could give your top three warnings too!)


thanks :-)

I love to look at Shanghai's historical buildings, influenced by the various past foreign concessions.


Worth paying a visit :

1.The Bund called "Wai-tan" locally - promenade fronting the Huangpu river, face the old beautiful buildings & Oriental Pearl Tower. Best to go in late evening/night, so that you can end the day beautifully, with a trip up the Oriental Pearl Tower. You'll have an awesome view of Shanghai city. Can also take a short boat trip.


2. Xintiandi - recently redeveloped part of Shanghai, maintaining their past authentic architecture, old historical houses "Shikumen" which are turned into upmarket cafes, restaurants etc serving Shanghai to international cuisine.

For Shanghai food experience, in Xintiandi locality, I'll go for:

- "The Ye Shanghai Restaurant" for delicious dinner. Location : House 6, North Block,338 Huangpi Nan Lu, Xintiandi.

- For local dim sum, go to "Din Tai Fung". Location: Building 6, Xintiandi South Block, Xintiandi.


3. Local shopping - Yuyuan Garden is a lively local marketplace where you can get Chinese goods/souvenirs at bargain prices.(need to bargain hard). There's a famous Chinese Restaurant"Lu Boh Lang" inside the shopping square which is worth a visit.


Nanjing Lu(Road)is also good for local/dept stores shopping(no bargaining for most stores), very busy & crowded, lots of interesting & affordable smaller restaurants, 30-50% less the price of Xintiandi's eateries (minus the ambience though).


If you don't speak Mandarin, recommend that you get a hotel address card from the reception desk. At the back of the card, the directions for the key tourist locations/addresses are written in Eng-Mandarin.

Also, the hotel card is extremely useful, since hotel name sounds different in Mandarin. Taxi drivers do not understand English at all & will look blank when you mention "hotel" as it is called locally "Dajiudian or Fandian".


Example on how different it will be :

Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel is called locally as "Gu Xiang Dajiudian" and Shangrila Hotel is "Xianggelila Fandian".

Personally, the hotel card was crucial in my earlier Shanghai trips when I did not know a single Mandarin word.

Have fun & watch out for pickpockets!

1. The Bund, night time viewing.

2. Xiao lung bao.

thank you all very much for these great suggestions! Funchal, thanks for the very detailed information.


i told our travel agent to strip out any organized activities from the airfare and hotel package - i knew i'd get much better ideas and tips here. :-)

If moving on yr own, the metro(subway) is efficient, cheap & no traffic jam.

Taxis are affordable option if you are travelling in a group.


This link is in Mandarin/English which you can tentatively use to do yr planning & later get one from the hotel.

My visitors found it useful to ask for directions/confirm the right subway, since it is in Mandarin/English.


http://johomaps.com/as/china/shanghai/shanghaimetro.html


Line 2 stations are near the interesting places eg. Jing An Temple, Zhongshan Park, Lujiazhui(Oriental Tower), Nanjing RdEast(Bund), Xintiandi etc.