Shanghai Travel Guide

Shanghai is where China shows off. The Bund's stone banking halls stare across the river at Pudong's glass towers; a Ming-dynasty garden hides two streets from a luxury mall; and the plane-tree avenues of the former French Concession still feel like a village inside a city of 25 million. It's a walkable city at its core — but its best day trips (canal water towns, Suzhou's gardens, Hangzhou's West Lake) all sit an hour or more away by road, which is where your private car earns its keep.

Top Things to Do in Shanghai

• The Bund — Free · best at dawn and blue hour
• Yu Garden & Old City — 1.5–2 hours · closed some Mondays
• Zhujiajiao Water Town — About 1 hour by car · half-day visit
• Former French Concession — 1–2 hours on foot · great for coffee stops
• Shanghai Tower & Pudong — Book ahead on clear days · 1.5 hours
• Nanjing Road & People's Square — Evening for neon · museum needs 2 hours

Explore all Shanghai attractions →

When to Go

March–May and September–November are ideal — mild, clear and comfortable. June brings the plum rains, July–August is hot and sticky with typhoon-season downpours possible, and winter is grey but mild and uncrowded.

Month-by-month guide →

Getting Around with a Private Driver

Central Shanghai rewards walking, but the water towns and neighboring cities don't: Zhujiajiao is an hour out, Suzhou and Hangzhou further still, and trains mean stations, queues and luggage. A driver turns each into an effortless door-to-door day — and inside the city, evening drop-offs at the Bund viewpoints beat hunting for taxis in the crowds.

Shanghai & Around: Distances at a Glance

Drive times assume normal traffic and a private car — ask us to sanity-check any combination of stops.