Luxury hotels in Shanghai

Shanghai guide

The Bund: Shanghai's waterfront, from art deco to Pudong

One riverside promenade, a century of architecture on one bank and the future on the other.

The Bund is the first thing every guide to Shanghai recommends. Along the west bank of the Huangpu River, a line of banks, trading houses and hotels from the early twentieth century, many in art deco style, faces the towers of Lujiazui across the water, among them the Shanghai Tower, the tallest building in China.

See it three times. Walk it at dawn, when the promenade belongs to people doing tai chi; return at dusk, when both banks light up; and end with a drink on one of the rooftop terraces above the old buildings. An evening river cruise shows both skylines at once.

From the Bund it is a short walk to Yu Garden, a classical Ming garden, and a short ride to the plane-tree streets of the former French Concession, the city's best area for walking. A Bund hotel puts you at the heart of it, with the river outside your window.

Yu Garden and the old city

Yu Garden, created in the sixteenth century by a Ming dynasty official, is the most cited sight in old Shanghai after the Bund: pavilions, ponds, rockeries and the Exquisite Jade Rock. Go at opening time, before the bazaar around it fills with crowds.

Beside it, the zigzag bridge leads to the Huxinting teahouse, and nearby stalls serve xiaolongbao, the city's famous soup dumplings. At the Lantern Festival, two weeks after Chinese New Year, the garden is lit with thousands of lanterns.

The Former French Concession

The Former French Concession, with avenues lined with plane trees and villas from the 1920s and 1930s, is the most cited neighbourhood for walking in Shanghai. Wukang Road and Anfu Road are the loveliest, best explored on foot or by bicycle.

Xintiandi, built around restored shikumen houses, has restaurants and the site of the first Communist Party congress, and the lanes of Tianzifang are full of small shops and studios. In the evening, the cocktail bars of the concession are among the best in Asia.