Shanghai

China·Asia

Currency

CNY

Language

Mandarin

Timezone

Shanghai

Continent

Asia

Our guide

Discover Shanghai

Shanghai reads as two facing riverbanks that contradict each other. To the west, The Bund lines up the banks and shipping houses of the 1920s along a kilometre and a half of waterfront. Opposite, Pudong answers with the Shanghai Tower, the world's second tallest at 632 metres, and the Shanghai World Financial Center. Between them, the Yu Yuan Garden has kept its rockeries and pavilions since 1559, ringed by a reconstructed old town. The Shanghai Museum holds the bronzes and ceramics, and the Shanghai Grand Theatre closes People's Square.

When to go

March to May and September to November: the two temperate windows. Summer is hot, very humid and crossed by typhoons between July and September. Winter is cold, damp and poorly heated in older buildings — it barely snows and you are still cold. Avoid the first week of October and Chinese New Year, when the whole country moves.

Getting around

The metro is the longest network in the world, modern, very cheap and signed in English. Payment is by mobile app almost everywhere: set it up before arriving, since cash is rare and foreign cards are often refused. The ferry crosses the Huangpu for the price of a ticket and gives the best view of both banks. The city is enormous; take each district separately.

Where to eat

Xiaolongbao, soup dumplings you drink before eating, are the local speciality and belong to breakfast or lunch. Shengjianbao, the pan-fried version, is sold on street corners. Shanghai cooking is sweeter than the north's — red braised pork is the example. No halal address is listed in our data, which understates a city of twenty-five million.

Good to know

The yuan is the currency. Most nationalities need a visa, with transit exemptions in some cases. The internet is filtered and most Western services are unreachable without arrangements made in advance. Major sites are booked online. And English is less widespread than you would think outside the business districts: a translation app earns its place.

Smart Planning