Except for the windy, chilly winter months, Shanghai teems with tourists and business travelers, most notably May through October. July and August are unpleasantly hot and humid as a rule; Shanghai's busiest tourist periods coincide with its mildest weather in the spring and fall. September and October are really the ideal times to visit, but they're also popular times for meetings and conventions, leading to high hotel occupancy and uncompetitive room rates. To avoid the big crowds and still enjoy decent weather, the ideal time to visit is in late March or late October/early November.

• Evening Cruise of Huangpu River
• Oriental TV Tower
• Shanghai Acrobatic Show
• Shanghai Museum
• Temple of Jade Buddha
• The Bund
• Yuyuan Garden & Baz

Shanghai does not have a definitive cuisine of its own, but refines those of the surrounding provinces (mostly from adjacent Jiangsu and Zhejiang coastal provinces). What can be called Shanghai cuisine is epitomized by the use of alcohol. Fish, eel, crab, and chicken are "drunken" with spirits and are briskly cooked/steamed or served raw. Salted meats and preserved vegetables are also commonly used to spice up the dish.
The use of sugar is common in Shanghainese cuisine and, especially when used in combination with soy sauce, effuses foods and sauces with a taste that is not so much sweet but rather savory.
"Beggar's Chicken" is a legendary dish of Beijing origin, called "jiaohua ji" in the Shanghainese dialect, wrapped in lotus leaves and covered in clay. Though usually prepared in ovens, the original and historic preparation involved cooking in the ground. The lion's head meatball and Shanghai-style nian gao are also uniquely Shanghainese, as are Shanghai fried noodles, a regional variant of chow mein that is made with Shanghai-style thick noodle. Lime-and-ginger-flavoured thousand-year eggs and stinky tofu are other popular Shanghainese delicacies.
Facing the East China Sea, seafood in Shanghai is very popular. However, due to its location among the rivers, lakes, and canals of the Yangtze Delta, locals favor freshwater produce just as much as saltwater products like crabs, oysters, and seaweed. The most famous local delicacy is Shanghai hairy crab.

Sheng Jian ("Sangji" - in Shanghainese)
Breakfast is commonly bought from corner stalls which sells pork buns, for the best xiaolongbao (small steamer bun). These stalls also sell other types of buns, such as Shengjian mantou, literally "fried bun") and Guo Tie (fried jiaozi), all eaten dipped in black vinegar.
A typical breakfast combination is youtiao, a dough-like food that is deep fried in oil until crisp and is eaten in all parts of China, wrapped in thick pancake, accompanied by soy milk.

Typical Shanghainese breakfast
In Shanghainese cuisine, cí fàn tuán is sometimes consumed together with soy milk as breakfast.

Crispy chicken
One of the local favourites in Shanghai is Shanghai crispy chicken. Crispy chicken is made by first boiling the body of a chicken until its flesh is tender, then roasting it for long periods of time or until the skin goes dry and crispy.

By air
Shanghai has two airports: Hongqiao International and Pudong International, the latter of which has the third highest traffic in China, following Beijing Capital International Airport and Hong Kong International Airport. Pudong International handles more international traffic than Beijing Capital however, with over 17.15 million international passengers handled in 2006 compared to the latter's 12.6 million passengers. Hongqiao mainly serves domestic routes, with a few city-to-city flights to Tokyo's Haneda Airport and Seoul's city airport. If you are "connecting" through Shanghai, check which airports your flights operate from ("SHA" is Hongqiao; "PVG" is Pudong).
A bonus if you arrive at, or depart from, Pudong airport is that you can travel to and from the airport in Shanghai's new MagLev (magnetic levitation) train, which peaks at over 400 km per hour!!  Its inner terminus is still a 30 minute taxi ride from the city centre. Note that the MagLev only operates in daylight hours, and if you present your airline ticket showing an arrival or departure that day, you are entitled to a discounted fare.

By bus
Public and private buses and taxis are the common mode of transport to get to Shanghai by road. Getting to Shanghai by road is a unique experience and an adventurous journey to reach the city.

By sea
The city of Shanghai is connected by sea to the rest of the world through Shanghai Port. Ships sail to Shanghai Port from about four hundred foreign ports all around the world. But owing to the slow pace of the ships traveling in the sea, voyages to some of the long distance sea routes have been discontinued.

By rail
About seventy pairs of trains connect Shanghai with various cities across the country. Some pairs of trains owned by Shanghai West Railway Station operate from Shanghai to Chengdu, Ganzhou, Hengyang, Zaozhuang, Yantai and so on. Eleven pairs of trains run daily trips from Shanghai South Railway Station to Jinshan, Jiashan, Hangzhou and others.

Drinking a cup of tea in a traditional tea-house on a late afternoon, meeting new travellers and locals in one of the bars or dancing sore feet away after midnight, Shanghai has plenty to offer of anything. Check out the tea houses, bars and the nightclubs.

Big Bamboo
Considered by many foreigners to be a better sports bar than longtime titleholder Malone's just down the street, this relaxed and friendly joint has your usual quotient of dart boards, foosball and pool tables, and two floors of big screen televisions broadcasting every major sport event you can think of (except perhaps synchronized swimming). It also helps that the ale is hearty and the food substantial. Daily 11am to 2am.
Type: Bars & Pubs
Address: Nanyang Lu 132   
Location: By Xikang Lu, Jing An   
Phone: 021-6256-2265

Malone's
Tongren Lu Canadian bar showing recreational sports events on the TV screens. Live music every night except Sunday by house band, Art 6.  Acoustical performance by Ged Cuff.  See www.malones.com.cn for more information.
Type: Casino

Paulaner German Beerhouse
A 3-storey bar, this beerhouse serves up home-brewed German beer with German prices! Also serves German food and a Filipino band plays hits from the 70s and 80s.
Type: Beer house
Tel: 64745700

Old China Hand Reading Room (Hanyuan Shuwu)
Shanghai's most charming coffeehouse, opened in 1996 by photographer Deke Erh, is also a bookstore, with hundreds of old and new, obscure and popular books and magazines on its shelves. Relax at a Qing Dynasty antique table by the window as you peruse your possible purchases over green tea or cappuccino. This is the best place to purchase the series of books on colonial architecture in China put out by Deke Erh and Tess Johnston. Daily 10am to midnight.
Type: Teahouse
Tel: 021-6473-2526
Address: Shaoxing Lu 27

99 Discos
Huge disco playing pop-techno. Channel V has regular parties here.
Type: Dancing
Tel: 62669999

Shanghai International Arts festival
The primary aim of the Shanghai International Arts festival is to absorb the best cultures that the world has to offer and also to promote traditional arts of China. The festival also aims to enhance cultural exchanges between China and rest of the world. Some of the activities organized at the festival include art program shows, art exhibitions, mass cultural activities and a trade fair of programs, arts and crafts.

Shanghai Film Festival
Usually held for eight days, the Shanghai Film Festival is one of the most important cultural events which is organized every year during the month of June. The Film Festival is a much looked after and popular event amongst the people of Shanghai who attend the festival in large numbers.
A number of world class international films are staged at the Shanghai Film Festival. Apart from the world cinema, the festival also showcases a number of Chinese films which are well appreciated by the audience. Some of the Chinese Films that have been screened during the previous editions of the Film Festival include "The Music Box", and "The Forest Ranger". The Jin Jue Award is the most prestigious award given out at the Shanghai Film Festival.

Shanghai International Magic Festival
Shanghai International Magic Festival has been held for more than 10 years and remains a popular attraction among the people of Shanghai. Numerous international magicians from more than 10 countries showcase their talent at this annual magic show. Most performers who come to the Shanghai International Magic Show are winners of international magic awards. Some of the programs held have never been conducted in China before. It is thus a treat for the local audiences. Magicians from other parts of China are also coming to watch the shows, trying to learn something from their overseas counterparts.

Shanghai International Tourism Trade Fair
Shanghai International Tourism Trade Fair is the largest of its kind to be held in the country. It attracts a large number of participants from around 40 countries of the world. Some of the leading countries that have participated in the previous editions of the fair include Australia, France, Germany, Japan, United States and Switzerland. Other countries that have participated before are Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, the Maldives and Vietnam. About 350 stands are booked by overseas participants every year.

Shanghai Tourism Festival
The Shanghai Tourism Festival is held every year from the third Saturday of September to the 16th day of October. The tourism festival is organized on a large scale and showcases all that the city has to offer to the visitors. The festival acts as a perfect event for locals and foreigners to discover the fascination of Chinese culture and history. A number of traditional as well as non-traditional entertainment programs are held across different venues across the city. Some of the events that can be seen during the tourism festival include a "rose wedding" ceremony, float parades and markets. During the festival you can take a tour of the Shanghai Lanes, attend the Chinese Festival at You Garden or be at the Century Park to witness the Music Fireworks Festival.

Shanghai International Music Fireworks Festival
The Shanghai International Music Fireworks Festival is a traditional programme and a part of the Shanghai Tourism Festival. The Fireworks Festival has been held three times in succession and the new term "music fireworks" was brought to Shanghai for the first time. The term "Music fireworks" refers to a "symphony of fire", blending the rhythm, color, and composition of fireworks with the cadence and artistic conception of music.

Shanghai Travel Story

Shanghai is a fascinating city.  Traditional, colonial, ultra-modern: all these influences blend together in Shanghai.

The two Chinese characters in the name "Shanghai", mean “above" and "sea", respectively, and show Shanghai's relationship to the sea, in this case the East China Sea.

Shanghai is the city with the highest population in China, and is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people in its extended metropolitan area.  Shanghai today is mainland China's centre for commerce and finance, and is sometimes referred to as the "showpiece" of the world's fastest-growing economy.

During the first half of the twentieth century Shanghai was the cultural and economic center of East Asia, making it the birthplace of everything “modern” in China. For example, it was here that the first motor car was driven and the first train tracks were laid. It was also the home of early twentieth century writers and intellectuals, the birthplace of Chinese cinema and theater, and the birthplace of the “Shanghai” school of art that broke with many of the conventions of traditional Chinese art. Today Shanghai’s modernity is continued and brought to new heights with its many constructions of ultra-modern building design. 

My tour of Shanghai was the E-China Tour 3-day tour Shanghai Classic Tour.

The first day of my tour was a visit to the famous Bund, a boulevard fronting the Huangpu River. The Bund shows off Shanghai’s outstanding foreign buildings, most of which were built before 1937. A veritable feast of early twentieth century European architectural styles, these include Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-Classical, Beaux-Arts, and Art Deco styles. To the Europeans, the Bund was Shanghai’s answer to New York’s Wall Street. In the 1930s, this line of buildings housed the city's financial and commercial centers, and the world's greatest banks and trading empires had their base here.

After this it was to Nanjing Road. This is Shanghai’s main shopping precinct and, in fact, one of the world’s busiest shopping streets. It is around 6km long and attracts over 1 million visitors a day. I think the 1 million were all there that day along with me - the street was packed with wall-to-wall shoppers and sightseers.  I was pestered at first by shop owners out on the street trying to give me leaflets and “shanghai” me to buy at their shops, until my guide stepped in and got rid of them with a strong warning.  But the shopping experience in this road was well worth the visit. I ended up purchasing a red leather jacket at a fraction the cost of what I would have paid back home for the same, as well as several exquisite silk pashminas in a variety of colors. 

The next day started with the Shanghai Museum, which is the biggest museum in China. It houses a collection of over 120,000 pieces of Chinese art and cultural relics.  It is especially famous for its treasures of bronzes, ceramics, paintings and calligraphy.  It was huge and contains ten special galleries each one housing respectively bronze, calligraphy, ceramics, furniture, jades, minority art, numismatics, paintings, sculptures, and seals. I was very impressed and realized I would need far longer than the allotted two hours to do justice to viewing all the exhibits.

After that my tour took me to the Yu Garden, constructed in the architectural style of the Ming Dynasty. This used to be a private garden with 400 years’ history. Nowadays it combines with a market and entertainment area. On the day I was there the market and entertainment area was crowded with what seemed like 1,000 people and the effect was rather claustrophobic.  However the garden itself, which needs the payment of an entrance fee, is a quiet refuge in the midst of it all. One of the main attractions of the garden is the Exquisite Jade Rock. The rock is about 3 meters in height and has 72 holes. What is fascinating about this rock is that if you burn a joss stick or a candle just below it, the smoke will magically float out from all of the holes. On the other hand, when you pour water into the rock from the top, the water will flow out from each hole, creating a spectacular sight.

The afternoon saw a visit to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the highest TV tower in Asia. Standing by the Huanpu River is 468 meters high. It is a really attractive building with a unique architectural style, as it consists of a series of colored spheres joined by steel columns to form the tower the whole of which rests on green grass, giving the appearance of, as the tourist brochures say, “Pearls shining on a jade plate”.  To me it was truly impressive that this ultra-modern tower combined traditional concepts, such as the spherical pearls, with 21st Century technology. The tower services the Shanghai area with at least nine television channels and ten FM radio channels. I travelled to the top of the tower in an elevator while an attendant gave us an introduction to it. The view from the top of the tower was tremendous and I was told I could see all the way to the Yangtze River. The exhibits in the spheres there gave me a glimpse of Shanghai through the ages. It is truly a must-see for any visitor to Shanghai and is probably the place in Shanghai that made the biggest impression on me.