Insight Guides Explore Shanghai (Travel Guide eBook)

By Insight Guides

Insight Guides Explore Shanghai

Travel made easy. Ask local experts.
Focused travel guide featuring the very best routes and itineraries.

Discover the best of Shanghai with this unique travel guide, packed full of insider information and stunning images. From making sure you don't miss out on must-see, top attractions like the Bund, Yu Garden and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, to discovering cultural gems, including the inspirational M50 Art District, a fascinating and informative trip to the Shanghai Museum, and a peaceful walk in Fuxing Park, the easy-to-follow, ready-made walking routes will save you time, and help you plan and enhance your visit to Shanghai.

Features of this travel guide to Shanghai:
- 15 walks and tours: detailed itineraries feature all the best places to visit, including where to eat and drink along the way
- Local highlights: discover the area's top attractions and unique sights, and be inspired by stunning imagery
- Historical and cultural insights: immerse yourself in China's rich history and culture, and learn all about its people, art and traditions
- Insider recommendations: discover the best hotels, restaurants and nightlife using our comprehensive listings
- Practical full-colour maps: with every major sight and listing highlighted, the full-colour maps make on-the-ground navigation easy
- Key tips and essential information: packed full of important travel information, from transport and tipping to etiquette and hours of operation
- Covers: The Bund; Behind the Bund; People's Square; Nanjing Road West; The Old Chinese City; Xintiandi; The Former French Concession; Hongkou Jewish Ghetto & Lu Xun Park; Suzhou Creek; Xujiahui; Pudong; Shanghai After Dark; Tongli; Suzhou; Hangzhou

Looking for a comprehensive guide to China? Check out Insight Guides China for a detailed and entertaining look at all the country has to offer.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Release date: Jan 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781789199307

Insight Guides

Pictorial travel guide to Arizona & the Grand Canyon with a free eBook provides all you need for every step of your journey. With in-depth features on culture and history, stunning colour photography and handy maps, it’s perfect for inspiration and finding out when to go to Arizona & the Grand Canyon and what to see in Arizona & the Grand Canyon. 

Book preview

How To Use This E-Book

This Explore Guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With ­top-­quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the world’s most exciting destinations.

Best Routes

The routes in this book provide something to suit all budgets, tastes and trip lengths. As well as covering the destination’s many classic attractions, the itineraries track lesser-known sights, and there are also ex­cursions for those who want to extend their visit outside the city. The routes embrace a range of interests, so whether you are an art fan, a gourmet, a history buff or have kids to entertain, you will find an option to suit.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments – options are shown in the ‘Food and Drink’ box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink, shopping and more, while a succinct history timeline highlights the key events over the centuries.

Directory

Also supporting the routes is a Directory chapter, with a clearly organised A–Z of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafés and restaurants that feature within the routes and are intended to offer a wider choice for evening dining. Also included here are some nightlife listings, plus a handy language guide and our recommendations for books and films about the destination.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

You’ll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

© 2020 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Recommended Routes For...

Architecture

Art enthusiasts

Children

Food and drink

Museums

Parks and gardens

Shopping

Temples

Explore Shanghai

Navigating the city

History and architecture

Soaring skyline

Climate

The Shanghainese

Local customs

Speaking English

Politics and economics

China’s financial capital

Food and Drink

Shanghainese cuisine

Street food and dumplings

Hairy crabs

Unrivalled dining scene

Café culture

Shopping

Shanghai chic

Art and antiques

Custom-made clothing

Entertainment

Dance and acrobatics

Music and opera

Film

Art galleries

Nightlife

Festivals

Architecture

Concession era

Lane houses

The concessions

Modern Shanghai

Future Shanghai

History: Key Dates

The Bund

Northern Bund

The Fairmont Peace Hotel

Southern Bund

The Big Ching

Behind the Bund

Missionary Row

Around Suzhou Creek

Huqiu Road

South towards Fuzhou Road

Art Deco highlights

People’s Square

People’s Park

Art centres

Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall

Shanghai Museum

Highlights from the Golden Age

Nanjing Road West

Lane life

Designer malls

Jewish legacy

Pei Mansion Hotel

Shanghai Exhibition Centre

Jing An Temple and park

Moller Villa

The Old Chinese City

Fuyou Road and around

Temple of the City God

Dragon Gate Mall

Ming-style bazaar

Yu Garden

Shanghai Old Street

Confucius Temple

Xintiandi

Old Xintiandi

New Xintiandi

The Former French Concession

Fuxing Park

Ruijin Guesthouse

Sassoon’s Shanghai

Cathedrals and conservatories

Shanghai Arts and Crafts Museum

Elegant villas

Henghsan Park and Soong Ching-ling’s Residence

Around Wukang Road

Hongkou Jewish Ghetto & Lu Xun Park

Lu Xun Memorials

Literary leanings

Little Vienna

Tilanqiao Prison and Xiahai Temple

1933

Suzhou Creek

Historic hotels

Shanghai Postal Museum

Into the M50 Art District

Jade Buddha Temple

Xujiahui

Shanghai library

Tushan Wan Museum

Longhua Pagoda and Temple

Martyrs’ Cemetery

Shanghai Botanical Gardens

Pudong

Shanghai’s icon

Family-friendly sights

Jinmao Tower

Science and Technology Museum

Century Park

Oriental Arts Centre

Qinci Yangdian Temple

China Art Palace

Shanghai’s super-scrapers

Shanghai After Dark

Shanghai Grand

Yifu Theatre

Peking opera

Great World Entertainment Centre

Shanghai Concert Hall

Bund area bar crawl

Tongli

Ming Qing Street

Gengle Hall

Three Bridges

A garden for reflection

Gondolas and islets

Ancient watertowns

Suzhou

City sights

A classical garden

North to Pingjiang Lu

Humble Administrator’s Garden

Suzhou Museum

Other Suzhou sights

Hangzhou

West Lake sights

Gu Shan Island

Tombs and temples

Lingyin Temple

Feilai Feng

Dragon Well Village

Xixi National Wetland Park

Dinner by West Lake

Accommodation

The Bund

Suzhou Creek and Hongkou

People’s Square

Nanjing Road West

Xintiandi and Old Town

Former French Concession

Western Shanghai

Pudong

Restaurants

The Bund

Nanjing Road West

Old Town

Xintiandi

Former French Concession

Western Shanghai

Pudong

Nightlife

Bars and clubs

Cocktail lounges

Live music

Theatres and concert halls

Film

Jazz venues

A-Z

A

Addresses

Age restrictions

B

Budgeting

Business cards

C

Children

Climate

Clothing

Crime and safety

Customs

E

Electricity

Embassies and consulates

Emergencies

Etiquette

G

Green issues

H

Health

Inoculations

Hospitals and clinics

Pharmacies

Hours and holidays

I

ID

Internet facilities

L

Language

Left luggage

LGBTQ travellers

Lost property

M

Maps

Media

Newspapers and magazines

Radio

Television

Money

P

Police

Post

R

Religious services

S

Smoking

T

Telephones

Time zone

Toilets

Tourist information

Overseas tourism offices

Tours and guides

Transport

Getting around

Arriving by air

Arriving by sea

Arriving by train

Arriving by bus

Car hire

Trips out of Shanghai

Travellers with disabilities

V

Visas

W

Websites

Weights and measures

Language

Basic rules

Pronunciation

Greetings

Pronouns

Travel

Shopping

Money, hotels, transport, communications

Time

Eating out

Numbers

Place names

Books and Film

Books

Film

Recommended Routes For...

Architecture

Shanghai is a city with a fabulous range of architecture, from wonderful Art Deco (routes 5 and 6) to lane houses (route 6) and dramatic modern skyscrapers (route 11).

Ryan Pyle/Apa Publications

Art enthusiasts

The main draw is the inspirational M50 Art District (route 9). For a more systematic viewing, art fans will want to see the Power Station of Art and the China Art Palace (route 11), which showcase the country’s high-profile modern-art scene.

Ryan Pyle/Apa Publications

Children

Across the river from the city centre, the Pudong district (route 11) has a cluster of child-friendly attractions. Kids will also enjoy trips out of town to the gardens of Suzhou (route 14) and the beautiful ‘water town’ of Tongli (route 13).

Ryan Pyle/Apa Publications

Food and drink

There is a vast range to choose from in what is one of the world’s great culinary centres. Try authentic local food in the Old City (route 5), or refined international dining on the Bund (route 1).

David Shen Kai/Apa Publications

Museums

The Shanghai Museum on People’s Square (route 3) is a great place to learn about China’s long history, while the Jewish Refugees Museum (route 8) is well worth going out of your way to see.

David Shen Kai/Apa Publications

Parks and gardens

People’s Park (route 3) and Fuxing Park (route 7) provide welcome green space, while further afield Suzhou and Hangzhou (routes 14 and 15) are famed for their classical gardens.

David Shen Kai/Apa Publications

Shopping

Nanjing Road West (route 4) is famous for its luxury shops, while to the south are Xintiandi and Huaihai Road (routes 6 and 7). The Ming-style bazaar in the Old City (route 5), Tianzifang (route 7) and M50 Art District (route 9) are great for souvenirs.

David Shen Kai/Apa Publications

Temples

The colourful Jade Buddha Temple (route 9) and classical Longhua Pagoda (route 10) are highlights, while Xiahai Temple (route 8) feels utterly authentic.

Ryan Pyle/Apa Publications

Explore Shanghai

Bold, brash Shanghai is China’s glamour city, where the faded glory of its treaty-port history exists hand-in-glove with a soaring skyline and a brilliant future. Prepare to be dazzled.

Spoil of the Opium Wars, Shanghai was opened to trade in 1842 and carved up into concessions by foreigners from around the world – an experiment that gave the city its global soul, its thirst for progress and its knack for international commerce. However, such foreign dominance also created a cauldron for resentment, and the Chinese Communist Party held its first meeting here in 1921. Revolution marched alongside old Shanghai’s decadent ways, finally winning over the city in May 1949. Since the beginning of the era of ‘reform and opening up’ in 1978, Shanghai has been on a vast growth trajectory, transforming its skyline and economy, building, booming and innovating. The result? A truly global city for the 21st century.

The Oriental Pearl Tower

Dreamstime

The routes in this book, arranged geographically, take in the different parts of the multi-layered Shanghai story – old and new, international and Chinese, business and cultural.

Getting a good view of Pudong

David Shen Kai/Apa Publications

Navigating the city

Shanghai borders the East China Sea to the east, Hangzhou Bay to the south, and the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the west. The limits of this maritime city’s neighbourhoods are also defined by its waterways; the Huangpu River separates Shanghai’s newest district, Pudong (‘east of the Huangpu’) from the rest of the city, Puxi (‘west of the Huangpu’, pronounced ‘poo-shee’). The Suzhou Creek divides Puxi’s thriving heart from its quieter northern suburbs.

Jade Buddha Temple lanterns

Ryan Pyle/Apa Publications

Shanghai Municipality covers roughly 6,340 sq km (2,450 sq miles), within which lie its 16 districts. New district boundaries have been drawn, but the shape and feel of the old foreign settlements and Nanshi (‘the old Chinese City’) are still discernible. Streets run north to south and east to west in grid-like fashion, except for oval-shaped Nanshi, which follows the lines of the old city wall, and People’s Square, defined by the ghost of the old racetrack. The major streets run the length of the city and have directional tags: Huaihai Road West, Central and East, for example. Buildings are usually numbered sequentially (but not always); odd numbers on one side of the street and even numbers on the other; the numbering on residential lanes (longtang) that run off the main streets bears no relation to the main street numbering.

The 98km (61-mile) outer ring road, the A20, takes a lap outside the city limits, while the inner ring Zhongshan Road loops around the perimeter of Puxi and Pudong, changing its name in Pudong and east Hongkou before turning back into Zhongshan Road. The Yan’an Road Elevated Highway bisects the city from east to west. Crossing the Huangpu River to Pudong from Puxi can be done via ferry, metro, a series of bridges including Nanpu, Yangpu and Lupu, and numerous tunnels.

Street signs are written in pinyin romanisation (or in some cases, in English) and Chinese characters, but most locals and taxi drivers know streets only by their Chinese names. Public transport is modern, clean, efficient and wide-reaching. It’s also fairly accessible for foreigners in that most signage and announcements are in both Chinese and English (bus stop signs are the one exception). However, very little English is spoken by drivers and other transport workers.

History and architecture

Shanghai’s history stretches back to the year 751, when Huating County was officially recognised. By 1292, the central government had established Shanghai County, acknowledged as a direct ancestor of contemporary Shanghai. The character of Shanghai as we know it today, however, was most profoundly shaped in the aftermath of the first Opium War in 1842. The treaty that ended that war divided the city into international concessions and brought in a cosmopolitan mix of traders, adventurers and people from around the world fleeing from poverty, revolution and war. Fortunes were made (and lost), and Shanghai began to develop the glamorous sheen and business acumen that it retains today. For key dates for more information, click here.

Soaring skyline

This influx also exerted a profound influence on the city’s built environment. Architects from China and around the world created buildings in international styles. Neoclassical, Tudor Revival, Mediterranean, Italianate and most notably Art Deco all feature in Shanghai’s landscape. Even the city’s domestic longtang lanes and shikumen houses are an East–West hybrid, unique to Shanghai (for more information, click here).

Shanghai’s economic rise since the mid-1990s echoes the 1930s boom with a brand-new skyline and a particular fondness for skyscrapers. The city has thousands of high-rises, with thousands more planned, and three of the world’s 30 tallest buildings stand up proudly (the Shanghai Tower, World Financial Centre and Jinmao Tower).

Shoppers pose for pictures in Xintandi

Ryan Pyle/Apa Publications

Futuristic Shanghai

David Shen Kai/Apa Publications

Playing Chinese chess in People’s Park

David Shen Kai/Apa Publications

Climate

Shanghai’s northern subtropical monsoon climate means plenty of rainfall during the summer months, and four distinct seasons: a hot, humid summer; a damp, cold winter; and crisp, if brief, spring and autumn, which are the best times to visit (for more information, click here).

The Shanghainese

Shanghai’s population of just over 26 million continues to grow – despite low fertility rates – and is projected to reach 50 million by 2050. Much of the Shanghai’s growth stems from long-term migrants who make up nearly 40 percent of the population. The city’s burgeoning expatriate community, made up of more than 150,000 people from around the world, lends the city a vibrantly cosmopolitan feel.

Shanghainese are considered by other Chinese people to be smart, hip – and a little arrogant.

Reviews for Insight Guides Explore Shanghai (Travel Guide eBook)

[thatsfresh_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I bought this, not knowing when I’d be going to Tokyo, but found out I would be going there sooner than I thought. Less that a year after buying this book I found myself in Tokyo for a 4 hour layover. I hadn’t bookmarked anything in this book, and had barely read it, but I had broughtit along with me so when I landed in Japan, I’d know what to do. Thanks to this book I was able to go through the very difficult task of taking all the trains into the city from Narita Airport and rushing to Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku. It was stressful and confusing, but I managed it, and am so happy I did. It totally worth the effort (not to mention money). If this book can guide me in a rush through Japan, then I’m sure it can do its job wonderfully if you actually read the whole book! And the maps Insight Guide includes with numbers, matching with sites being described is so helpful. It also includes a small fold out map (not entirely helpful) with a bunch of restaurants pinpointed on it. Defiantly a necessity for all planning on going to Tokyo.