Your first trip to Shanghai
Everything you need, nothing you don't

Maglev train: 430 km/h, reaches Longyang Road station in about 8 minutes. Ticket ¥50 (~฿250). Change to Metro Line 2 for the city centre. Metro Line 2: ¥7–8 (~฿35–40), takes 50–60 minutes to the centre. Best value, and runs until well after midnight. Taxi: ¥160–200 (~฿800–1,000) to central Shanghai — practical if you have several bags or arrive very late.

Metro Lines 2 and 10 depart directly from the Hongqiao terminal. Fares ¥4–7 (~฿20–35), journey to People's Square roughly 30–40 minutes. Taxi to central Shanghai ¥60–100 (~฿300–500). The advantage here is the adjacent Hongqiao HSR station: if you are planning a day trip to Suzhou or Hangzhou, you can board the high-speed train without going into the city first.

Wake up and walk to the Bund in five minutes. Yu Garden is two Metro stops away. This is where most first-timers want to be, and for good reason. Hotels here tend to sit at the upper end of the price range, but the position pays for itself in time saved.

Three metro lines intersect here (Lines 1, 2 and 8), making this the easiest base for covering the city efficiently. Nanjing Road is outside the door. Both budget and luxury hotels are available. Less atmospheric than the Bund area, but highly functional.

Several hotels in Lujiazui face directly across to the Bund — waking up to that view is one of the genuinely memorable hotel experiences in any city. Premium pricing, but the outlook is unique. The three major observation towers are on your doorstep.

Boutique hotels and independent cafes rather than tourist crowds. Wukang Road, Tianzifang and the French Concession's plane-tree boulevards are all within walking distance. This neighbourhood rewards people who want to explore on foot rather than tick off a list.

If your trip involves day trips by high-speed rail to Suzhou or Hangzhou, or if you are connecting from a domestic flight, Hongqiao is the most logistically efficient base. It is not the most atmospheric part of the city, but Metro Lines 2 and 10 connect it to everything within 30–40 minutes.

Google Maps, Gmail, Translate, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and LINE all stop working the moment you connect to a Chinese SIM or network, unless you have a working VPN. Set it up on your phone at home — configuring a VPN from inside China is harder. Download Amap (Gaode Maps) for navigation — it works without a VPN and has English. For the internet itself, see VPN and eSIM guide →

Street stalls, local noodle shops, tea vendors and small cafes often have no card terminal at all — mobile payment (Alipay or WeChat Pay) is the only option. The tourist version of Alipay accepts foreign Visa and Mastercard and takes a few minutes to set up. Alternatively, withdraw yuan from an ATM on arrival. Major chains and hotel restaurants accept credit cards without issue.

Metro stations have English signs throughout, but taxi and ride-share drivers in Shanghai typically cannot read a romanised address. Save your hotel and key destinations in Chinese characters on your phone — or simply show the driver an Amap pin. Most drivers accept DiDi (China's Uber equivalent), which shows routes in the app and removes the language barrier entirely.

Tipping is not part of Chinese restaurant or taxi culture. Leaving money on the table may prompt the staff to follow you to return it, thinking you made a mistake. Pay the bill total and nothing more. The exception is some international-brand hotels catering to Western guests, where a small gratuity for exceptional service is understood but still not required.

During Golden Week holidays (1–7 May for Labour Day, 1–7 October for National Day) and Chinese New Year (January or February, dates vary by year), domestic tourists travel in enormous numbers. Major attractions become genuinely crowded — the Bund promenade can feel impassable on a Golden Week evening. Hotel prices typically double or triple. If your dates overlap, book three to four months ahead. Full seasonal guide: when to visit →

A friendly person — often a student who strikes up a conversation in good English — suggests visiting a tea house nearby. The experience ends with a bill for several hundred yuan that was never discussed. This is the most common tourist scam in Shanghai and operates almost exclusively near the Bund and People's Square. The response is simple: thank them politely and keep walking. Shanghai is genuinely safe in all other respects — this is the main thing to be aware of.