CITY HUB

Shanghai

Finance, architecture and the easiest soft landing.

Shanghai is the most international city in mainland China and a good first stop for business travellers. The metro is extensive, English signage is common, and the airport links are fast.

Airport and arrival

Pudong (PVG) and Hongqiao (SHA). Hongqiao is closer to the city and connects to the high-speed rail station; Pudong is farther east but has the maglev and metro.

Getting around

Pudong connects by metro line 2, the maglev and taxis; Hongqiao is closer and links to the high-speed rail station. The metro is the default; DiDi for door-to-door.

Famous places

The Bund and Lujiazui skyline
Yu Garden and City God Temple
Shanghai Museum
Tianzifang and the Former French Concession
Shanghai Tower observation deck

Where to stay

The Bund/Huangpu is great for a first visit; Jing’an is more residential and restaurant-heavy; the Former French Concession is walkable but pricey.

The Bund / Huangpu — classic skyline
Jing’an — cafés, offices, international schools
Former French Concession — walkable streets and restaurants

What to eat

Xiaolongbao, shengjianbao, scallion oil noodles, Shanghainese home cooking.

Day trip

Suzhou’s gardens or Hangzhou’s West Lake by high-speed rail (30–60 minutes).

City basics

Check the official city government and metro websites for opening hours, tickets and temporary closures. Hotel registration and visa rules still apply.

Stories & festivals

How Shanghai tells its own story

01

A garden built for a father

Yu Garden was begun in 1559 by Pan Yunduan, a Ming official, as a retirement gift for his father, Pan En. The name “Yu” means to please or comfort one’s parents. Construction stalled while Pan served in Sichuan and was not completed until 1577; by then his father had died, a detail that gives the garden its quiet melancholy. Over the centuries the garden passed through private hands, became temple property and a market, and was restored in the 1950s.

Festival link: The garden is now the heart of the Yuyuan Lantern Festival, held around Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival. The fair was launched in 1995 and was listed as national intangible cultural heritage in 2011; its lanterns retell myths and zodiac stories.

02

Longhua Temple and the third-month fair

Longhua Temple is traditionally said to have been founded in 242 AD, during the Three Kingdoms period, though the present buildings are later reconstructions and the brick pagoda dates to 977. The temple gave its name to the surrounding district and to the Longhua peach blossoms that once drew spring crowds. Its temple fair has been held since the Ming dynasty on the third day of the third lunar month, when pilgrims, traders and performers filled the temple grounds.

Festival link: The Longhua Temple Fair is listed as national intangible cultural heritage (2008). It is a spring event, tied to the lunar calendar and the peach-blossom season; check the current year’s dates before visiting.

03

The Bund, Suzhou Creek and the treaty-port city

In 1843, after the First Opium War, Shanghai was opened as a treaty port. The Bund grew from a muddy riverbank into a line of banks, hotels, customs buildings and consulates, while Suzhou Creek became an industrial waterway of warehouses, factories and workers’ housing. The waterfront is a record of unequal treaties and commercial ambition, not a neutral postcard. Its architecture still shows how a regional trading town became an international city in one century.

Festival link: Modern festival link: the China Shanghai International Arts Festival (usually October–November) uses theatres and historic spaces across the city; check the programme for waterfront and Bund-area venues.