Walk the Bund and Step into Twentieth-Century Shanghai
Stand on Zhongshan East 1st Road where the Huangpu River moves past you, and look at the waterfront buildings rising in Neoclassical, Art Deco, Gothic and other European styles. These are the structures that once housed foreign banks, consulates and trading companies during the colonial period—the physical memory of Shanghai's transformation into a global trade hub. The Bund and the International Settlement represent the cityscape of early twentieth-century Shanghai, when it became a primary commercial and financial center of Asia in the 1930s. Walk the length of this district to see how a single street anchors centuries of the city's story. Nearby, explore Nanjing Road East, once the main street of the old British Concession and now a bustling pedestrians-only shopping strip that runs from the Bund to People's Square.
Wander Shikumen Lanes and the Former French Concession
The shikumen buildings that define neighborhoods like Xintiandi and Tianzifang are unique to Shanghai—lane houses that blend Western terrace structures with traditional Jiangnan courtyard layouts, marked by distinctive stone-framed gateways. These two areas took the old housing stock and transformed it into living quarters for browsing and lingering. Xintiandi offers shopping malls, trendy bars and restaurants with tourism at its center. Tianzifang, newer and less commercialized, emphasizes arts, crafts and boutique shopping. Beyond these specific blocks, the former French Concession as a whole has always been a fashionable area, even during the colonial period when famous Chinese residents chose to live there. Today it remains the best area for boutique shopping, small galleries and craft shops, and interesting restaurants. Walk Huaihai Road, an upmarket shopping street many Shanghai people prefer over Nanjing Road. Explore the garden villas on Wukang Road, Hengshan Road, and within Sinan Mansions—high-end residences built mainly in the 1920s–1940s, featuring spacious plans, private gardens and modern domestic facilities, many of them former homes of famous historical figures.
Experience Traditional Shanghai Gardens and Architecture
The Old City (also known as the South City) is the original Chinese city going back about 1000 years, now a major tourist area centered on Yuyuan. This classical garden preserves precious gems of traditional Chinese garden art alongside other gardens worth seeking out: Guyi Garden, Qiuxia Garden, Qushui Garden, and Zuibai Pond. These spaces offer respite from the modern city and showcase horticultural traditions that predate Shanghai's transformation into a skyscraper metropolis. A City God Temple stands in the Old City as well, built in 1602—an honor usually reserved for prefectural capitals and a marker of Shanghai's early economic importance.
Discover Modern Art and Museum Collections
Contemporary art in Shanghai is scattered across several neighborhoods, many in renovated former industrial buildings. M50 art district in Putuo District is the main center for contemporary Chinese art, with dozens of studios and galleries housed in a former factory. The Power Station of Art sits on the Huangpu River in an old power plant that was first converted for Expo 2010, then became the first state-run contemporary art museum in China. In the former French Concession, the Shanghai Propaganda Poster and Art Centre holds a fine collection of Mao-era posters and memorabilia. The West Bund is one of the city's newest art districts, where the West Bund Museum opened in 2019 as the first Chinese outpost of the French art museum Centre Pompidou. Tianzifang in the French Concession also has many galleries and studios mixed into its residential lanes.
For broader collections, the Shanghai Museum and Shanghai Urban Planning Museum sit on opposite sides of People's Square in Huangpu District. The China Art Museum, housed in what was the China Pavilion of the 2010 World Expo, is dedicated to modern Chinese art and features a digital animated version of China's most famous painting, Along the River During the Qingming Festival. The Shanghai Municipal History Museum is in Pudong, below the Pearl Tower. Other specialized museums include the Shanghai Railway Museum near Shanghai Railway Station, the Shanghai Natural History Museum in Jing'an District, the Chinese Martial Arts Museum on the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education campus, and a Yuan-Dynasty Water Sluice Museum in Putuo District.
Watch Shanghai Opera and Traditional Performing Arts
Huju (Shanghai Opera) is a national intangible cultural heritage and the most representative local opera of Shanghai. It originated from folk songs sung by farmers on both sides of the Huangpu River in the late 19th century and developed into formal opera as the city modernized. Unlike grand classical Chinese operas, Huju focuses on the daily lives of ordinary Shanghai people, with plots about family stories and urban life, melodies that are soft and close to daily speech, and performers singing in authentic Shanghai dialect. You can watch performances at small theaters in old Shanghai neighborhoods or at the Shanghai Huju Theater.
Shanghai-style Pingtan is a traditional narrative singing art that combines storytelling with singing, usually performed by one or two artists accompanied by the pipa and sanxian. Artists tell classic Chinese folk tales and historical stories in soft Shanghai or Suzhou dialect. Find authentic performances at Xiangyin Shuyuan, a famous Pingtan venue, or in cultural teahouses throughout Shanghai, where many local people listen while drinking tea. Yue opera, the second most popular style of traditional Chinese opera nationwide, is also deeply rooted in Shanghai culture and available to watch in the city's performance venues.
Begin planning by deciding whether you want to anchor your time in the colonial-era architecture of the Bund and Nanjing Road, or spend days wandering the French Concession's lanes and galleries. The Shanghai Metro will carry you efficiently between neighborhoods—use it to jump from the gardens of the Old City to the contemporary art spaces of M50, or to reach a Pingtan performance in the evening. Shanghai rewards both purposeful sightseeing and unhurried wandering.