The Sundarban
This text was once produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
Minimize a touch through this Chinese megacity from the sycamore-dusky, heritage shopping streets of the broken-down French Concession to the high-wattage urban wonderland of the Bund. Locals here work arduous and play tougher, so the energy is intense — and the other folks-watching is 2nd to none.
8am: Breakfast two ways
Early birds gain first crack at jianbing, the savoury crepes made with spring onions or chilli sauce at kiosks around town. Stroll along Changle Toll road in the broken-down French Concession to find the ideal focus — a takeaway, rolled in waxed paper, charges around 50p. For Western-fashion brunch, there’s Egg, shut to Changle’s intersection with Xiangyang Toll road, for fritters and waffles.
10am: Shopping in the broken-down French Concession
Art deco and mock Tudor villas line avenues comparable to the Wukang and Anfu Roads, built for French grandees in the early twentieth century. Today you’ll find tailors, bike mechanics and jewellers like the questionably named Blackhead. Also examine out for Culture Matters for customary trainers by retro Chinese trace Feiyue; and Déja Vu, a 3-storey vintage boutique with vogue designer clothing and a aged-book lounge.
12pm: A stroll in the park
City gardens are the pride of Shanghai — and of pensioners, who reach for tai chi or to gamble over playing cards. Stroll Xiangyang Park’s landscaped trails, facing the onion-domed Russian Church in the broken-down French Concession. Carry on 15 minutes down Huaihai Toll road to relax out in Fuxing Park beside certainly one of the monuments from China’s communist heyday. At lunch, you’d safe a sport of flag soccer or final frisbee, every common with younger Shanghainese.
2pm: Dumpling delights
In the Huangpu quarter, head up Huanghe Toll road — certainly one of Shanghai’s few remaining ‘food streets’. As soon as ubiquitous, these streets, chockablock with restaurants and kiosks, beget step by step been swallowed by pattern. However Huanghe Toll road remains — partly due to of the recognition of Jia Jia Tang Bao, a tough-and-ready diner serving steamers of xiaolongbao. These dumplings reach stuffed with crab, pork, rooster or veg and sizzling, tangy broth. 90 Huanghe Toll road
3pm: Historic waterside stroll
At Huanghe Toll road you’re no longer removed from Suzhou Creek, which meanders through the city’s north, so hop on the footpath to stumble on repurposed industrial Shanghai. Antique brick storehouses left to crumble for a century now condominium indie bookstores, galleries and ‘inventive childhood’ — what the Chinese name today’s knowing younger things. Survey at the aspect of the Sihang Warehouse, pockmarked with bullet holes from a 1937 standoff with Eastern occupiers. Then strive the Fotografiska photography gallery and its reward shop selling cheeky Chinese-designed crafts, including postcards subverting aged propaganda posters and up to date takes on Ming ceramics.
5pm: Craft beer by the creek
Zhang Yindi, aka the Beer Woman, earned her title with a miniature craft beer shop catering to university students. International customers told her to import European producers, drawing extra punters. Now she runs Beer Woman craft beer bars during the city, including her flagship, The Beer Woman, arena in a grey-brick building with al fresco tables facing Suzhou Creek. Hundreds of styles are stocked — preserve shut a First Blood lager from Shanghai’s Boxing Cat brewery for approximately £3 a bottle. 1247 Nansuzhou Toll road
7pm: The cash shot
At sundown there’s nowhere extra exciting than the Bund recede. No one leaves Shanghai with out selfies from the historic river stroll, with the bulbous Pearl Tower, Shanghai Tower and their hundred or so mammoth-gargantuan siblings flickering during the river. However few know about the minimalist fifth-floor bar at the perfectly positioned Regent Hotel on the Bund, the place the curved terrace provides you an eyeful of the entire mind-blowing panorama. Divulge a cocktail here, then find a noodle joint on Sichuan Toll road, just appropriate behind the Bund, for a low-worth, satisfying meal.
10pm: Cocktails with dandies & fashionistas
Hit Nanchang Toll road to find the coolest cocktail joints in town, frequented by dandies in tweed and fashionistas in berets swinging Chanel baggage. Paal, at amount 94, serves rum punch with jackfruit, pineapple, tonka bean and condensed milk. Penicillin, at amount 64, is a closed-loop bar that objectives to steer clear of close with ways comparable to making organic ferments from the by-products of ingredients aged in its cocktails.
Published in the November 2025 agonize of National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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