Shanghai is the city that decided to exist in two centuries at once. On one bank of the Huangpu River sits the Bund — 1.5 km of neoclassical, Art Deco and Beaux-Arts facades raised between 1900 and 1937 by the British, French and American banks that ran the "International Settlement." HSBC, Bank of China, Customs House, Peace Hotel: 52 listed buildings, each with documented history of foreign capital, opium, tea and silk trade. On the opposite bank, 600 meters away, sits Pudong — rice paddy in 1990, today the most famous skyline in Asia: Oriental Pearl (1994), Jin Mao (1999), SWFC (2008), Shanghai Tower (2015, 632m, world's second-tallest building). Crossing the Huangpu by ferry costs ¥2 and takes 5 minutes. It's the cheapest time travel on the planet.
The French Concession (法租界) is the Shanghai that survives on human scale. From 1849 to 1943 it was autonomous French territory inside China — French law, French police, plane trees planted as in Paris. Today the same plane trees shade entire streets of Xuhui and Jing'an, covering Art Deco villas now housing third-wave coffee roasters, indie bookshops, real French bistros with chefs from Lyon, Scandinavian design boutiques and unmarked speakeasy bars. Wukang Road, Anfu Road, Yongkang Road: three addresses that could pass for Marais. It's the only part of Shanghai you walk without rush — and the only one where silent electric traffic makes cinematic sense.
In 2026 Shanghai became the easiest destination in China thanks to the 144-hour (6-day) transit visa — any Brazilian, American, European or Japanese with onward ticket to a third country enters without visa, fee or pre-application. The program was expanded in December 2024 and the effect is immediate: tourists who used to go only to Tokyo or Seoul now slot Shanghai between them. The city responded with infrastructure: the Maglev from Pudong (PVG) airport to the city runs 30 km in 7 minutes at 430 km/h (the world's fastest commercial train, ¥50), the metro has 20 lines and 831 km (planet's largest network), and direct flights from GRU/JFK/LHR/CDG/NRT land at PVG between 16h and 28h.
The Great Firewall is real with no exception. Google, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, ChatGPT, Wikipedia, Gmail and virtually every Western service are blocked in mainland China — including Shanghai. The single fix: install and pay for a VPN BEFORE boarding (ExpressVPN, Astrill or NordVPN — test the connection before traveling, because the VPN site is also blocked after arrival). And payment: physical cash barely exists anymore — 95% of transactions go through WeChat Pay or Alipay QR codes. Both apps now accept international Visa/Mastercard, but registration must be done BEFORE the trip with selfie and passport. Without VPN and WeChat/Alipay, Shanghai becomes an island disconnected from everything.
Shanghai food is sweet — and this is specific. Hu cai cuisine (本帮菜, "local style") uses sugar, Zhenjiang dark vinegar and soy sauce in amounts that shock a Beijinger. Xiao long bao (小笼包, soup dumplings) were born in nearby Nanxiang in 1875: the skin is thin enough to see the broth inside, eating it wrong burns your mouth. Sheng jian bao (生煎包, pan-fried bottom, steamed top) is the street version. Lacquered duck, sweet-and-sour fish, lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice, hairy crab from Yangcheng Lake (Oct-Nov, ¥300+ per piece). For palates used to sugar, Shanghai is the most immediate Chinese cuisine — and the Chinese restaurant you know back home is probably Cantonese or Sichuan, not from here.
Voyspark editorial · updated monthly by our resident editor in Xangai.
