Welcome to the start of my China series, everyone! Today, I will be sharing my first city guide, all about Shanghai. This was our first stop in China and I liked it a lot more than I expected. In this guide, I will include information about the best things to do, how to get around, and where to stay.
In June/July 2019, my family and I went on a two week trip to China and Singapore. Whilst China has never been on my bucket list because I’m not super into history or cities, it was certainly a unique experience and it was worth the trip to see the Great Wall and for the delicious food! The vast majority of our time in the country was spent on an overland tour by Peregrine Adventures called the “Best of China” tour. The tour visited four of the major cities in China (Shanghai, Luoyang, Xi’an and Beijing), and included visits to some of the most famous sites such as the Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors and the Shao Lin Temple. We also spent an additional day each in Shanghai and Beijing to explore in our own time.
Top 5 things to do in Shanghai
Visit the Bund
If you like city views, you can’t pass up on a trip to the Bund. Located on the Huangpu River, the Bund provides amazing views across to the Pudong District of Shanghai, often referred to as the “new” part of Shanghai due to its modern buildings and skyscrapers. The Bund also includes the historic buildings on the Western bank of the Huangpu River, such as the Customs House and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Building. If you have the opportunity to visit more than once, it might be worth doing so. We did, and the view was much less hazy the second time, making for some great photos! Plus, you should visit during the day as well as at night! But more on that below.
Cruise the Huangpu River by night
On our last night in Shanghai, we took a night cruise along the Huangpu river from the Bund and it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip for me! The city was lit up beautifully and it was really interesting to get a different view of both the new and old parts of Shanghai. By standing on one side of the boat, we were able to see the old side of the city on the way up then the new part once we turned around on the way back. There was one building in particular that stood out to me because it had an entire series of moving pictures lit up on it! You can see a bit of it in my YouTube video (click the link or I’ll embed it at the end of the post).
Walk through Nanjing Road Shopping Mall
The quickest and easiest way to get back to our hotel from the Bund was to walk through the Nanjing Road Shopping Mall. Nanjing Road is one of the world’s busiest shopping streets and is quite an interesting place to visit, even if you’re like us and aren’t into shopping. Honestly, I thought it was huge! As we walked through, I saw at least four different McDonalds locations… We enjoyed admiring the bright and colourful signs, especially when we walked past at night, and explored a couple of the stores. The MnM store and Lego store were both quite fun! We especially loved seeing the Lego sculptures of a dragon and the Pearl Tower. The only other shop we went into was a small shop full of traditional Chinese instruments. As musicians, we couldn’t help but take a moment to have a look.
Explore the Yuyuan Gardens and Yuyuan Bazaar
The Yuyuan Gardens were definitely a highlight in Shanghai for me, though they were quite different from what I expected. Having been to Japan a few years ago, I expected the Chinese gardens to be similar. But I found that wasn’t the case at all. In China, the gardens are based around decorative halls, pavilions, bridges and other traditional buildings. Something that really stood out to me was all the carvings on the buildings. They were so intricate and always caught my eye. There are also a lot of rock formations, which were apparently glued together with rice paste. Overall, it was a very interesting place and definitely worth the visit. Entry is 30 or 40 Yuan, depending what time of year you visit.
Just outside of the Yuyuan Gardens is the Yuyuan Bazaar. This area of traditional-style buildings (though they are not actually very old) is full of shops and stalls where you can buy souvenirs, food… You name it, you can probably find it. I was quite excited to see a robot that dispensed ice cream! But unfortunately you had to pay with your phone so we couldn’t get one… lame… I’ll share more about paying with your phone in my China tips post coming at the end of this series, but it is worth considering setting up something like Alipay, especially if you are travelling through China without a tour guide.
Admire ancient artefacts at the Shanghai Museum
If you’re one of my regular readers, you’ve probably worked out by now that I’m not really a museum person. However, even I was impressed by the Shanghai Museum. We ended up visiting twice during our time in Shanghai: once alone and once with our tour group. Entry is free but if you don’t arrive first thing in the morning, be prepared to queue up for quite a while to get in. You will also have to go through a body and bag scanner before entering the museum itself.
What is so impressive about the Shanghai Museum is the sheer number and range of items. We saw pottery, jade, calligraphy, paintings, coins, statues, clothing… And we didn’t even get around to all the exhibits in our two visits. There was just so much to see!
My personal favourite items were a pot decorated with peaches and bats, and a couple of paintings of Golden Pheasants. The peaches and bats pot just seemed to random to me, plus I like bats! I’ve since done some research, though, and it turns out that this is quite a common pairing in artwork in China. Peaches and bats are considered to be fortunate in Chinese culture, and are often pictured together because originally peaches relied on bats for dispersal! The character for bat is the same as that for “good luck” and since they live in caves (which are a passageway to the realm of immortals) they also represent longevity and fertility. Peaches also represent longevity, as the ‘Queen Mother of the West’ grows peaches in her garden and when they ripen and humans eat them they become immortal. So there you have it!
Getting around Shanghai
Shanghai was a very easy city to get around both by walking and via public transport. We only took one bus while we were there from our hotel to the Yuyuan gardens, but I hear the public transport system is very well set up. We chose to walk most places as they weren’t that far from our hotel, plus we felt it gave us an interesting insight into the city. On our first trip to the Bund, we walked along a street full of hardware stores selling just about everything! To get back, we walked along a different street to the People’s Square and were struck by the different styles of buildings, the washing hanging in the streets, and the peaceful gardens and green spaces scattered throughout the huge city.
Where to stay in Shanghai
If you’re looking for hotel accommodation in Shanghai, I would recommend the Kingtown Hotel Plaza. When we arrived in the middle of the night, it seemed like it was in a bit of a weird spot and would be hard to find. But once we got out exploring, we discovered it was in a great location! It was quite close to the People’s Square and Nanjing Road, and it was fairly easy to walk to the Bund. The hotel is also in quite a nice location being a short walk from the Suzhou River. It is also close to a metro station. Breakfast was included in our booking and it was the best breakfast out of all the hotels we stayed in!
Want to see more of China and Singapore? Check out my YouTube video!
If you read my post last week about YouTube for travel bloggers, you’ll know I think the best way to learn about a destination is to watch a video about it! Make sure you check out my video below which includes some of the highlights from my trip. I didn’t actually set out with the intention to make a video; this is just footage I found and threw together. But it should give you a bit of an idea of what travelling in China is like. Make sure to check out my channel and subscribe if you like the video!
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