Photo: King of Hearts · CC BY-SA 4.07 Days in Shanghai: Icons, Old Lanes & a Slow Full Week
Seven unhurried days in Shanghai: the Bund at night and a Huangpu river cruise, Yu Garden and the Old City's snack streets, slow afternoons in the French Concession's lanes, villas and art museums, a Pudong day of skyscraper decks and riverside walks, and a full food-and-markets day of dumplings, noodles and tea houses. Answer a few questions and the plan re-plans itself around how you travel: your pace, your budget, your stops.
Pick a style, a budget and a pace — the route and days below re-plan themselves.
21 stops · 14 meals · 1 hotelThis is the editor’s pick.
7 days
Each day takes one part of Shanghai, kept close so you walk more than you ride. The map shows the whole route — pick a day to zoom in.
- Day 1The Bund: The Bund waterfront & the Postal Museum
- Day 2Old City: Yu Garden & Dajing Ge Pavilion
- Day 3Old City: Shanghai Old Street & the Confucian Temple
- Day 4French Concession: Sinan Mansions & Zhou Enlai's former residence
- Day 5French Concession: Soong Ching-ling's former residence & Wukang Road
- Day 6French Concession: The Shikumen Open House & the Sinan Books poetry store
- Day 7Pudong: The Shanghai Tower deck & the SWFC observatory
A free museum on the second floor of the 1924 Baroque General Post Office: China's postal history, the Large Dragon stamps, a Penny Black and the restored director's office.
- Open Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 9am-5pm.
Nearly 150 years old and still the benchmark for classic Benbang Shanghainese cooking: sweet, rich, soy-braised dishes in a grand old hall on Fuyou Road.
- Walking distance from Yu Garden: pair the garden with lunch here.
Closer: Mr & Mrs Bund, right on your way
A time-honored pastry and dim sum shop on Sichuan Road: buttery sesame cakes, rice balls and festival mooncakes since the 19th century, from a takeaway counter.
Walk the 1.5-km promenade past 52 colonial-era banks and trading houses, with Pudong's towers across the Huangpu. Go at dusk: the lit facades carry the whole thing. Free and open 24 hours.
- Come after dark for the lit facades and skyline.
China's first all-steel bridge, a 1907 camelback truss spanning Suzhou Creek's mouth. Cross it at sunset, then look back at the Bund. Lit with colored LEDs at night.
- See it after dark, lit with colored LEDs.
A stretch
Three-Michelin-star chef Paul Pairet's playful modern French brasserie in Bund 18: relaxed, buzzing, with Huangpu River views and legendary desserts.
- Reservations strongly recommended.
- After the Bund walk, dinner at Mr & Mrs Bund in Bund 18: Paul Pairet's playful French brasserie sits about 7 minutes along the promenade.
A long-running nautical-themed hostel in a 1930s building near East Nanjing Road: dorm bunks and private rooms, plus a famous rooftop bar overlooking the Bund and the Pudong skyline.
Shanghai's most celebrated classical garden: a 450-year-old Ming maze of pavilions, rockeries and koi ponds. Give it 1.5 to 2 hours and arrive early, before the tour groups.
- Closed Mondays: keep the garden off your Monday plan.
The only surviving 50-meter section of the Ming-dynasty Old City wall, built in 1553 against Japanese pirates, with the rebuilt Dajing Ge Pavilion on top and a small exhibit on old-city life.
- Admission is 5 RMB; open 9am-4pm.
The original xiaolongbao house since 1900 in the heart of Yuyuan: paper-thin skins, juicy pork filling, and the famous straw-sipped 'super' soup buns. Bib Gourmand.
- Take a number from the ground-floor window for grab-and-go.
A 600-year-old Taoist temple to the city's guardian deity, ringed by Ming-style market streets full of snacks and tea houses. It sits right next to Yu Garden, so see the two together.
- Next to Yu Garden: pair the temple with the garden in one morning.
- Garden first, temple second: the 600-year-old City God Temple is an 8-minute walk from Yu Garden's gates. Do both in the morning, before the bazaar crowds.
- Refuel steps from the temple: Nanxiang, the original 1900 xiaolongbao house. Take a number from the ground-floor window for grab-and-go, or head upstairs to sit down.
A time-honored tangyuan restaurant by the City God Temple: sweet black-sesame and savory pork glutinous-rice balls.
Shanghai's oldest teahouse, converted in 1855, on stilts mid-lake at the end of the Zigzag Bridge: linger over Longjing and dim sum with a view.
- Sit upstairs for the best atmosphere.
Stay put: 18 min walk back from the City God Temple tonight, ~13 min by taxi to the Confucian Temple in the morning.
A century-old vegetarian and medicinal restaurant in the Yuyuan area: veggie steam buns, assorted vegetarian noodles and a street-side takeaway counter.
- A noted vegetarian breakfast option near Yu Garden.
Lantern-lit market streets in Ming and Qing-style buildings: snack stalls, tea houses and souvenir shops around the garden. Try xiaolongbao, shengjianbao and butterfly pastries.
- Come after dark, when the lanterns light up.
An 825-meter reconstructed Ming and Qing-style street at the edge of the Old City: teahouses, hundred-year-old shops, antique stores and snack stalls. Entry is free.
- The western section holds the antique shops and century-old stores.
- Yuyuan Bazaar's lantern-lit streets run straight into Shanghai Old Street: one continuous evening of Ming-style lanes, teahouses and snack stalls.
The city's only Confucian temple, tracing its origins to 1294: Ming and Qing halls, a Confucius statue, the Da Cheng Bell, and the Analects engraved in over 16,400 characters on the hall walls.
- Entry is 10 RMB; open 9:00-17:00.
A renowned Cantonese restaurant on Fuzhou Road, famous for its mooncakes; serves lunch and dinner daily.
- Lunch 11:00-14:00, dinner 17:00-21:00 daily.
Stay put: ~13 min by taxi back from the Confucian Temple tonight, ~18 min by taxi to Sinan Mansions in the morning.
One of Shanghai's 'Heavenly Four' noodle houses: yellow croaker noodles with fish painstakingly deboned by hand. Expect a queue at peak times.
- Order and pay at the counter at the entrance before finding a seat.
A leafy enclave of historic garden villas from the Republic of China era, restored and filled with restaurants, cafes, bookstores and cultural spaces.
- The Sinan Bookstore sits at 517 Middle Fuxing Road, in a former villa.
A 1920s three-storey French-style villa on Sinan Road that served as the Communist Party's Shanghai office in 1946-47, now a free memorial museum with a garden.
- Free entrance; open Tuesday to Sunday, 9am-4:30pm.
A 1905 French Renaissance mansion, the 'Little White House', showing embroidery, jade and wood carving, paper cutting and lacquerwork, with live artisans at work on the first and third floors.
- Open Wednesday to Sunday, 9:00-17:00; tickets 8 RMB.
A beloved local dumpling canteen famous for crab-roe xiaolongbao with golden soup that fills a spoon. Watch the aunties fold them through the glass window.
Stay put: ~24 min by taxi back from the Arts and Crafts Museum tonight, ~28 min by taxi to Soong Ching-ling's former residence in the morning.
The city's most famous xiaolongbao specialist: paper-thin skins, steaming soup, founded 1986. The crab-roe xiaolongbao is the signature. About 30-60 CNY per person; no reservations, so go early.
- No reservations: go early and beat the People's Square queue.
The 1920s French Concession villa where Soong Ching-ling lived for 15 years, kept as she left it: office and bedroom upstairs, the car Stalin gave her in the garage, and a garden annex of relics.
- Adult tickets 20 yuan; open Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00-17:00.
A plane-tree-lined avenue of garden villas and Art Deco apartments, anchored by the 1924 Wukang Building. Autumn plane-tree foliage is famous here.
- Go early morning or late afternoon for the light and fewer crowds.
A 1920s American country club compound revived as a design and dining district: historic villas, the landmark blue-and-white pool, the Tsutaya bookstore and cafes.
- Free admission: take Metro Line 3 or 4 to Yan'an West Road, Exit 2.
A stretch
Yunnan cuisine on the Bund's rooftop, open since 2009: one of the classic terrace settings for taking guests to dinner.
- Popular: reserve ahead.
Stay put: ~30 min by taxi back from Columbia Circle tonight, ~15 min by taxi to the Shikumen Open House in the morning.
Taiwanese chain famous for xiaolongbao folded exactly 18 times: impeccable dumplings, noodles and fried rice at about ten times the street-stall price.
- Arrive early at lunch or dinner or expect a long wait.
A preserved 1920s shikumen lane house in Xintiandi, furnished as a middle-class family home of the 1920s-40s: bedrooms, kitchen, prayer room and a writer's rented pavilion room.
- Admission 20 RMB; a visit takes less than an hour.
A former 1932 church reborn as Shanghai's largest poetry bookstore: 45 tons of added steel hold a glowing steel library grid between the original walls and dome.
- Come by day for the shelves, and after dark for the glowing steel grid.
The European-style bungalow where Sun Yat-sen lived with Soong Ching-ling from 1918 to 1924, furnished with their original belongings. The Sun-Joffe Manifesto was written here in 1923.
- Open 9:00-17:00, closed Mondays.
- From Sun Yat-sen's residence, walk about 2 minutes down Sinan Road to the poetry bookstore in the converted 1932 church.
A stretch
Modern Cantonese fine dining in Bund 18: cod with Champagne and Chinese honey, crispy duck salad, jasmine tea smoked Wagyu, in moody interiors facing the skyline.
Closer: Ye Shanghai (Xintiandi), right on your way
Stay put: ~18 min by taxi back from Sun Yat-sen's former residence tonight, ~12 min by taxi to the Shanghai Tower deck in the morning.
A Western casual chain at the Shanghai World Financial Center: burgers, salads and brunch, open daily for lunch and dinner.
The bottle-opener tower's 100th-floor Sky Walk: a 474-meter glass-floored skybridge looking straight down to the street. Combine it with the 94th and 97th floors on one ticket.
- The 94th-floor-only ticket is about 120 CNY, against about 180 for all three floors.
China's tallest building at 632 meters: the 118th-floor observation deck reached by one of the world's fastest elevators. There is a 546-meter outdoor glass bridge on the 118th floor.
- The adult 180 CNY ticket covers the B1 hall, the 118th-floor deck and the 119th-floor cafe.
- Tower-hop in one afternoon: the Shanghai Tower deck and the SWFC observatory stand about 3 minutes apart in Lujiazui. Pick one deck, or do both.
A 420.5-meter pagoda-inspired skyscraper: the 88th-floor observatory over Lujiazui, a sky post office, and an open-air 60-meter skywalk with no handrails.
- The Skywalk runs 15-20 minute sessions: 298 CNY booked online, 388 on site.
A stretch
53rd-floor Ritz-Carlton Cantonese fine dining under vaulted ceilings: refined regional dishes, handcrafted dim sum at lunch and a Bund panorama.
- Go for handcrafted dim sum at lunch, with the Bund panorama.
Stay put: ~12 min by taxi back from the Jin Mao Tower observatory tonight, ~12 min by taxi to the SWFC observatory in the morning.
Where to stay in Shanghai
Ranked for first-timer travelers on a comfortable budget. The places this plan sleeps in come first.
Captain Hostel
A long-running nautical-themed hostel in a 1930s building near East Nanjing Road: dorm bunks and private rooms, plus a famous rooftop bar overlooking the Bund and the Pudong skyline.
Hanting Hotel Shanghai Yu Garden
A budget chain hotel renovated in 2024 near Yu Garden and the Bund: clean compact rooms at the cheapest tier in the Old City, a few minutes from the Yuyuan metro stop.
Yitel Premium Shanghai Lujiazui
A mid-range Yitel hotel on Pudong Avenue near the Yuanshen Road metro: modern rooms with free WiFi and an on-site restaurant, a practical Lujiazui base for tower-hopping.
Flights to Shanghai
Fly into PVG (PVG)
Flight results via Travelpayouts — we may earn a commission on bookings.
Getting around Shanghai
How to actually move around the city — transit, rideshare, bikes, and taxis.
Public transit
The metro is the backbone of getting around Shanghai — one of the world's largest networks — with buses covering the gaps, the maglev sprinting to Pudong Airport, and ferries crossing the Huangpu. Contactless bank cards and phone QR codes work at the gates.
- Shanghai Metro
One of the world's largest metro networks — 19 lines and 800+ km linking both airports, the railway stations and every major district, with English signage throughout. Distance-based fares start at ¥3 for the first 6 km; trains run roughly 5:30am to 11pm.
Tip: Skip the ticket machines: tap a contactless Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay or Amex card at the gate, or ride with a QR code from the Metro Daduhui app.
- Shanghai Maglev
The world's first commercial maglev line, running between Longyang Road metro station and Pudong International Airport in about 8 minutes at up to 300 km/h. The standard one-way fare is ¥50 (¥40 with the Shanghai Public Transportation Card); trains run 6:45am–9:40pm every 15–20 minutes.
Tip: Flying out of Pudong? Show a same-day boarding pass for the discounted air-passenger fare, and budget the 10-minute Line 2 ride from downtown to Longyang Road.
Rideshare
DiDi is the default way to hail a car, with full English support and foreign cards accepted; Amap aggregates DiDi and smaller fleets so you can compare prices. Both are far cheaper than taxis in most Western cities.
- DiDi Chuxing
China's dominant ride-hailing app, with a full English interface, English-speaking support and international credit cards accepted. DiDi Express is the cheap everyday option; DiDi Taxi books a metered cab; Premier handles airport pickups.
Tip: Set up DiDi before you land — it accepts foreign phone numbers, and in-app chat auto-translates between you and the driver.
- Amap (Gaode)
Alibaba's map app (Gaode) doubles as a ride-hailing aggregator, comparing DiDi, Xiangdao and smaller fleets on one screen with upfront prices. It also replaces Google Maps here, with metro, bus and walking directions.
Tip: Get Amap Global from your app store; log in with Alipay or WeChat to unlock hailing, bike rental and transit QR codes in one place.
Bikes
Dockless shared bikes are the city's best last-kilometer option — unlock one outside any metro station with Alipay or WeChat and ride the flat, bike-laned streets. No deposit or local phone number required.
- HelloBike
One of Shanghai's three big dockless bike networks alongside Meituan and DiDi's Qingju — blue bikes clustered outside every metro station. Unlock with the HelloBike app or the Alipay mini-program; rides run about ¥1.50–2.50 per 30 minutes.
Tip: End the ride inside the service zone shown on the map and flick the rear-wheel lock shut manually, or the meter keeps running.
- Meituan Bike
The yellow bikes of Meituan's dockless network, everywhere in central Shanghai and rentable through the Meituan app or Alipay/WeChat mini-programs. Same short-hop pricing as rivals — handy when no HelloBike is in sight.
Tip: A 7-day unlimited pass costs only a few yuan — worth it if you'll bike more than twice a day.
Taxis
Licensed metered taxis are plentiful and cheap, though most drivers speak little English. Hail on the street, call a fleet hotline, or book through DiDi — never accept a flat fare from a tout.
- Qiangsheng Taxi
One of Shanghai's biggest licensed taxi fleets (orange cabs), bookable by street hail, the 62580 English hotline or DiDi. Flagfall is ¥14–16 for the first 3 km, then ¥2.7/km; night rates run 11pm–5am. No tipping — pay the meter and take the fapiao receipt.
Tip: Have your destination written in Chinese characters — most drivers speak little English — and never board a cab whose driver won't run the meter.
Keep exploring
More itineraries for this trip.
- Photo: King of Hearts · CC BY-SA 4.05 days
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