What to book ahead
Very little, which is why Shanghai is the easier half of a first China trip. But get the closed days right, because they are not the same across the city:
- Shanghai Museum (People's Square) closes Monday.
- Shanghai Museum East closes Tuesday.
- Yu Garden closes Monday. The free bazaar around it stays open, so people arrive, see the crowds, and never realise the garden is shut.
- M50 galleries largely close Monday and often Sunday.
Good news on the big museum: individual visitors have needed no reservation at the Shanghai Museum since 1 September 2025. Walk in at the south gate with ID. It is free.
Only two things really want booking: Shanghai Disney, where inventory appears on a rolling ~30-day calendar and tickets are passport-linked, and Shanghai Tower, cheaper booked a day ahead.
Day 1 — The waterfront and the old city
Start on the Bund early, around 7–8am, while it is empty and the light is on the Pudong towers. Walk the elevated promenade, then cross to Zhongshan East 1st Road for the colonial banking façades — which most people photograph from the wrong side. Floodlighting runs roughly 18:00–23:00 if you come back at night.
Walk south to Yu Garden — ¥40 in peak season (April–June, September–November), ¥30 off-peak, open 08:30–16:30 with last entry at 16:00. The garden proper is a separate ticketed enclosure *inside* the free bazaar, and the entrance is easy to miss entirely.
Afternoon: skip Nanjing Road unless you want crowds, and cut west into the former French Concession — plane trees, 1920s villas, independent coffee, and the best walking in the city.
Evening: back to the Bund for the lit skyline, or across to Shanghai Tower. ¥180 for the 118th-floor observatory, about 10% less booked online a day ahead, open roughly 08:30–22:00. Enter at ground-floor Gates 1 or 2 and take the escalators down to the B1 ticket hall — that is the only entrance, and people lose half an hour circling the podium.
Day 2 — Museums and the concession
Go to the right museum. The People's Square building now leans towards international loan exhibitions; the core ancient Chinese collection — the bronzes, ceramics and painting galleries — has moved to Shanghai Museum East in Pudong. If you came for the bronzes, go east. It is free, 10:00–18:00, closed Tuesday, and needs a free timed reservation.
Afternoon: M50 on Moganshan Road beside Suzhou Creek, or the Power Station of Art — a converted 1897 power station on the South Bund, free for general entry, closed Monday, and worth the trip for the turbine hall even if the current show doesn't appeal.
Tianzifang is now predominantly souvenir retail rather than an art district; an hour is plenty.
Jing'an Temple (¥50, 07:30–17:00) is best at opening, when it is worshippers rather than shoppers and the low sun is on the gilded roof. It sits directly above its own metro station.
Evening: the bars around Yongkang Lu, or jazz at the Peace Hotel for the 1930s version.
Day 3 — Water town, or Suzhou
Zhujiajiao is the easy option and genuinely good: metro Line 17 goes there directly from Hongqiao Railway Station, then a 10–15 minute walk from Exit 1. The town and canals are free to walk; a combined ticket of about ¥60 covers the individually ticketed sites inside. Boats are priced per boat, not per head — about ¥200–300 for up to six people, so it is cheap shared and expensive alone.
Suzhou is the better day out if you only do one: about 25 minutes by high-speed rail, and the classical gardens there are the finest in China.
Getting around
Shanghai's metro is the largest in the world and the easiest to use in China: English throughout, Alipay QR at the gate, and it reaches everything here including Zhujiajiao and both airports.
From Pudong airport, the maglev is ¥50 (¥80 return), takes 8 minutes 10 seconds, and runs 06:45–21:42. Note it now tops out at 300 km/h rather than the old 431. It drops you at Longyang Road, where you change to the metro — so it is more an experience than a transfer. Metro Line 2 goes the whole way for a few yuan; a DiDi takes about an hour.
Honest notes
- Shanghai is not "the real China" and doesn't pretend to be. Pair it with Beijing or Xi'an rather than treating it as representative.
- Summer is punishingly humid. October and April are the best months.
- Three days is comfortable. Four lets you add Suzhou or Hangzhou properly.