Shanghai: where to stay in a city of 24 million

Overview

Shanghai is split by the Huangpu River, and that split is the first thing to understand: the west bank, Puxi, is the older city — the Bund waterfront, the tree-lined lanes of the former concessions, the shopping streets — while the east bank, Pudong, is the skyscraper district built largely since the 1990s, all financial towers and wide boulevards. Most of what a visitor wants to walk through is in Puxi; most of the photographs people associate with the city (the Oriental Pearl Tower, the supertall Shanghai Tower) are the Pudong skyline seen from Puxi, across the water at the Bund.

It is enormous and dense, and getting around depends entirely on the metro rather than on walking between districts — this is not a city you cross on foot. It is also more expensive than the rest of mainland China, less English-speaking than its skyline suggests, and, for a foreign visitor, unusually fiddly to operate in day to day because of mobile payments and blocked western apps (see Practicalities). Come for the concession-era streets, the food, and the sheer scale of the place, and plan the logistics before you arrive rather than after.

Where to stay

The decision here really is about which side of the river and which district, because distances are large and the metro, not your feet, links them. Base yourself in Puxi unless you have a specific reason to be in Pudong. Within Puxi, the concession districts and the Bund core are where most visitors are happiest.

The Bund & Nanjing Road (Huangpu)

The historic waterfront and the streets running back from it — the row of grand 1920s banking buildings facing the Pudong towers, plus the pedestrianised shopping run of Nanjing Road East and the old city with Yuyuan Garden to the south. Stay here if it is your first visit and you want the postcard on your doorstep and the metro interchange at People’s Square close by. The trade-off is that this is the most touristed and priciest part of the city, the crowds on the Bund promenade and Nanjing Road are relentless, and the immediate riverfront blocks are short on ordinary neighbourhood life once the day-trippers leave.

Former French Concession (Xuhui & Huangpu/Luwan)

The low-rise, plane-tree-shaded district southwest of the centre, laced with longtang — the narrow residential lanes lined with brick shikumen houses. This is the most pleasant part of Shanghai to walk and the best area for cafés, small restaurants and independent shops, including the restored lane complexes around Xintiandi and the arts alleys of Tianzifang. Stay here for atmosphere and walkability — it suits second-time visitors, couples and anyone who wants to wander rather than sightsee. The trade-off is that it is spread out and metro stops are further apart than in the core, and the genuinely charming streets sit next to some very expensive boutique lodging.

Jing’an

Central Puxi, north of the concession, around Jing’an Temple and the Nanjing Road West shopping corridor. It is polished, business-oriented and extremely well connected by metro, which makes it the practical all-rounder: central, walkable to the concession’s northern edge, easy to leave in any direction. Stay here if you value transit access and don’t want to choose between the sightseeing core and the quieter lanes. The trade-off is character — it is smart but somewhat corporate, and it lacks the lane-life texture of the concession a few blocks south.

Lujiazui & Pudong

The east-bank financial district: the supertall towers, wide roads, big malls and riverside promenade with the best head-on view of the Puxi skyline. Stay here if you are in Shanghai for business in Pudong, arriving late from Pudong airport, or you specifically want a high-floor hotel view. The trade-off is that Lujiazui is built for offices, not for loitering — distances between towers are car-scaled, street life is thin in the evenings, and everything atmospheric is a river crossing away in Puxi.

When to go

Autumn (late September to early November) is the best window: warm, drier, and the season for hairy crab, the local autumn obsession. Spring (late March to May) is the other good stretch, mild and green, though it can be wet. Summer is hot, oppressively humid and includes the plum-rain season (meiyu) in June, when it drizzles for weeks, followed by real heat in July and August and the occasional typhoon blowing up the coast in late summer — plan around it if you can. Winter is cold, grey and damp rather than freezing; older buildings are poorly heated, so the chill gets into you, but crowds thin and it is an easy time to eat the city’s richer braised dishes. National holidays — the October Golden Week and the Lunar New Year (late January or February) — see the city either mobbed by domestic tourists or half-shut as residents leave, so both are worth avoiding.

Getting there & around

Shanghai has two airports, and which one you use changes your arrival completely. Pudong (PVG), the main international gateway, sits far out on the east coast, roughly 30 km and a real journey from the centre; Hongqiao (SHA), mostly domestic and regional, is much closer on the west side. From Pudong, the Maglev train runs to Longyang Road metro station in around eight minutes at very high speed, though from there you still need the metro onward — fast and fun but not door-to-door. Metro Line 2 links both airports and runs straight through the centre, which is the cheapest option from either, but the ride from Pudong is long. A taxi from Pudong is a genuine trek in traffic; from Hongqiao it is manageable.

Once you are in the city, the metro is the answer to almost everything — one of the largest networks in the world, clean, cheap, signposted in English, and the only sane way to cover Shanghai’s distances. Buy a rechargeable transit card or use a mobile-payment QR code at the gates. Do not rent a car: traffic is heavy, parking is impossible and you gain nothing. Taxis are plentiful and affordable but drivers rarely speak English, so have your destination written in Chinese characters or shown on a map. Hongqiao is also Shanghai’s high-speed rail hub — the same complex as the airport — with fast trains to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and onward to Beijing, all of which make easy day trips or departures.

Practicalities

Two things trip up first-time visitors more than anything else, and both need sorting before you land.

First, payments. Shanghai runs almost entirely on two mobile-payment apps scanned by QR code; cash is accepted but increasingly awkward, and many smaller places are effectively cashless. Foreign cards can now be linked to the main apps, but set this up in advance rather than at a market stall — arriving without a working mobile-payment method makes daily life much harder than it needs to be.

Second, the internet. Many western services — search, maps, messaging and social apps you rely on — are blocked in mainland China. If you need them, arrange a VPN before you arrive, because you generally cannot download one once you are inside the firewall. A local offline map and a translation app saved to your phone are worth having regardless.

On food: the local benbang cooking is on the sweet, oily, soy-braised side. The dishes to know are xiaolongbao, the soup-filled dumplings eaten with care so you don’t burn yourself on the broth; shengjianbao, their pan-fried, thicker-skinned cousins sold from griddles as street food; hongshao rou, red-braised pork belly; scallion-oil noodles; and, in autumn, hairy crab (dazhaxie), steamed and eaten with vinegar and ginger — a seasonal ritual, not an everyday dish. Shanghai is broadly safe, including at night; the main frictions are the language gap and the logistics above rather than any risk.