 Facts at a Glance
Area: 6200 sq km (2418 sq mi)
Population: 14 million
Country: People's Republic of China
People: Han Chinese
Main language: Mandarin (putonghua)/Shanghaihua
Time Zone: GMT/UTC plus 8 hours
Telephone Code: 021
An ideal port, Shanghai is the gateway to the mighty Yangzi River. But when the British opened their first concession here in 1842, after the first Opium War, it was little more than a small town supported by fishing and weaving. Change was rapid. The French turned up in 1847 and it wasn't long before an International Settlement was established. By the time the Japanese rocked up in 1895 the city was being parcelled up into settlements, all autonomous and immune from Chinese law. Enter China's first fully fledged Special Economic Zone.
The world's greatest houses of finance and commerce descended on Shanghai in the 1930s. The place had the tallest buildings in Asia, and more motor vehicles on its streets than the rest of China put together. Shanghai became a byword for exploitation and vice, in countless opium dens and gambling joints, in myriad brothels.And guarding it all were the American, French and Italian marines, British Tommies and Japanese bluejackets.
By the time the Communists said enough was enough in 1947, they had the job of eradicating slums, rehabilitating hundreds of thousands of opium addicts, and stamping out child and slave labour. For the West, the party was over in Shanghai. But the 1990s have seen invitations go out again to capitalist business interests as the central government hunts foreign capital to help reinvent this whirlwind metropolis.
 Slippery when wet (16K)
The best times to visit Shanghai are spring and autumn. In winter, temperatures can drop well below freezing, with a blanket of drizzle. Summers are hot and humid with temperatures as high as 40°C (104°F). So, in short, you'll need silk long johns and down jackets for winter, an ice block for each armpit in summer and an umbrella wouldn't go astray in either season.
 Orientation
Shanghai lies in central-eastern China, exposed to the East China Sea. The municipality covers a substantial area, but the city proper is a more modest size. Within Shanghai municipality is the island of Chongming. It's part of the Yangzi River delta and is worth a footnote because it's the second largest island in China (or third if you recognise China's claim to Taiwan).
Broadly, central Shanghai is divided into two areas: Pudong (east of the Huangpu River) and Puxi (west of the Huangpu River). For visitors, the attractions of Shanghai are in Puxi. Street names are given in Pinyin, which makes navigating easy, and many of the streets are named after cities and provinces.
The Bund
The Bund is an Anglo-Indian term for the embankment of a muddy waterfront. The term is apt: mud bedevils the city. Its muddy predicament aside, the Bund is symbolic. To the Europeans, it was Shanghai's Wall Street, a place of feverish trading and an unabashed playground for Western business sophisticates. It remains the city's most eloquent reminder that Shanghai is a very foreign invention.
Still a grand strip of hotels, shopping streets and nightclubs, the Bund remains an intrinsic part of Shanghai's character. Constant throngs of Chinese and foreign tourists pad past the porticos of the Bund's grand edifices while the buildings themselves loom serenely; a vagabond assortment of neoclassical 1930s downtown New York styles, with a touch of monumental antiquity thrown in for good measure. The building identified by a crowning dome is the old Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, completed in 1921 with much pomp and ceremony. For many years it has housed the Shanghai People's Municipal Government. The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank has long been negotiating to get it back. Other Bund fixtures are being sold off, and will no doubt be dusted off and cleaned up.
Misty morning on the Bund (19K)
Dancing fans take to the Bund (19K)
Frenchtown
The core of Frenchtown, the former French Concession, is the area around Huaihai Lu and the Jinjiang Hotel and is fast becoming the place to explore - especially for foodies. Huaihai Lu is all about shopping. Huge department stores blot out the sun along a road colourfully lined with flowerboxes. The area around the hotel is littered with cafes, boutiques and the odd antique shop. Head down the side streets off Yan'an Lu for the tatty, down-at-heel fin de siècle architecture that is so evocative of yesteryear.
The nearby Yuyuan Gardens & Bazaar offers some delicious lunchtime snacks and welcome greenery. The Pan family, rich Ming Dynasty officials, founded the gardens, which took 18 years (from 1559 to 1577) to be nurtured into existence. They were snuffed out by a bombardment during the Opium War in 1842. Today they've been restored and attract hordes of Chinese tourists. The Temple of the Town Gods is a recently restored and overrated attraction in the bazaar area. In fact, the Yuyuan Bazaar itself, a Disneyland version of historical China, is altogether more interesting. More than 100 specialty shops and restaurants jostle shoulders over narrow laneways and small squares in a mock 'olde Cathay' setting.
Nanjing Lu
Nanjing Donglu (Nanjing Road East) has long been China's golden mile. Once supreme, it's looking a bit frayed and has slipped a few notches to the emerging luxury option of Huaihai Lu, but laden shoppers still traipse past its cathedrals of commerce, gawped at by gaggles of out-of-towners.
Even back in the dull Communist era, Nanjing Donglu had a distinctly 'shop till you drop' feel about it. Nowadays, Esprit, Benetton and McDonald's have shouldered Marx and Mao into the draughty halls of little-visited museums - which was where the capitalist state was meant to end up.
Shanghai Museum
This stunning new building is symbolic of the many changes that are afoot in China - gone are airy corridors, dry exhibits, yawning security guards and stale air - the new Shanghai museum is as impressive outside as in. Designed to recall the shape of an ancient Chinese ding vessel, as architectural statement and as home to one of the most impressive collections of art in China, the Shanghai Museum is a must-see.
On golden pond (16K)
Huangpu River Trip
There are three main perspectives on Shanghai - from the gutters, from the heights (ie from the battlements of the tourist fortresses) and from the waters. The Huangpu River offers some remarkable views of the Bund and the riverfront activity. Tour boats leave for 3-4 hour tours from the dock on the Bund.
Huzhou Pagoda, built in 1079 AD, is the leaning tower of China, with an inclination now exceeding the tower at Pisa by 1.5 degrees - at last count. The 19m (62ft) tower started tilting about 200 years ago. It's on Tianmashan in Songjiang County, 20km (12mi) south-west of Shanghai.
A good stroll west of the Bund on Nanjing Lu, the night market is a nightly mini-festival of food at very reasonable prices. If you're feeling queasy, stay away from Nanjing Lu. It's pretty much Shanghai's prime eating strip - and just about anything gets eaten here.
Neon impressionism, Magic Restaurant (16K)
 Activities
Golf courses have invaded the suburbs of Shanghai. As elsewhere, it's a sport of the well-to-do. The Chinese can take credit for developing many of the best massage techniques which are employed today. You'll need a Chinese person to direct you to a legitimate, small specialist massage clinic. Alternatively, look for the blind masseuses that work on the streets in Shanghai.
The Shanghai Music Festival is in May and the Shanghai International Tea Culture Festival is usually at the end of April. The Shanghai Marathon Cup is in March and is one of the top sporting events in China. The Shanghai Beer Festival staggers into town around the end of July, while the Shanghai Tourism Festival kicks off in late September. It's worth bearing these dates in mind as hotel accommodation can become scarce - during the Chinese New Year, usually in February, Shanghai is packed out.
Shanghai has rail and air connections to places all over China, ferries travelling up the Yangzi River and many boats along the coast. Hongqiao airport is 18km (11mi) from the Bund and reachable via bus, shuttle or taxi. Train and boat tickets are best bought through CITS, the official China tourism body. Buses to destinations in adjoining provinces are plentiful (yes, and plenty full as well).
While there are some fascinating places to stroll through in Shanghai, new road developments, building sites, jam-packed walkways and shocking traffic conditions conspire to make walking in most areas an exhausting experience. Local buses are hard work too. The subway system, on the other hand, is a dream - but so far it only does a north-south sprint through central Shanghai. Travellers with money to spare can at least hop into a taxi. A number of hotels also offer free shuttle buses to and from the Bund area.
Although it's possible to hire a car in Shanghai, it's really not worth the hassle unless you're familiar with the nightmare of Shanghai's one-way system and the appalling conditions on the roads.
Easyrider (22K)
- Get a copy of Pan Ling's In Search of Old Shanghai for a rundown on who was who and what was what back in the bad old days.
- For where they lived, consult A Last Look: Western Architecture in Old Shanghai by Tess Johnson and Deke Erh which offers a fascinating photographic record of buildings in the city.
- Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng is one of a long line of I-survived-China books. It focuses largely on the Cultural Revolution.
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