Lujiazui & Pudong, Shanghai
Three of the world's tallest towers, the Bund glittering across the water

Lujiazui is the opposite of the Former French Concession in almost every dimension: the streets are wide, the buildings are enormous, there are no trees, and the scale is explicitly intended to make an impression. Where the Concession invites you to slow down, Lujiazui makes you look up. The neighbourhood is functional rather than atmospheric in the daytime — but at night, when both banks of the Huangpu illuminate together, the visual effect is one of the most remarkable things a city produces for free anywhere in the world.

• 1
  For architecture and engineering enthusiasts

  Supertall towers · structural innovation · nothing like this anywhere else

  Shanghai Tower, designed by Gensler, twists 120 degrees from base to tip — reducing wind load by 24 per cent. It has a double-skin facade: an inner curtain wall enclosing the offices, an outer envelope creating a thermal buffer. SWFC's square aperture at the top was originally circular (referencing the Japanese flag, changed under pressure). Jin Mao references Chinese pagoda proportions with the number eight — considered auspicious — embedded throughout its dimensions. These are not just tall buildings; they are engineering arguments made in steel and glass.

• 2
  For photographers and view-seekers

  Bund panorama · cross-river views · two different compositions

  Most visitors stand on the Bund to photograph Pudong. Fewer realise that coming to the Pudong side gives you the best photograph of the Bund — the colonial facades lined up across the water, properly separated and legible in a way they never are when you are standing in front of them. Walk south along Binjiang Avenue to where the river bends and you can frame both banks in a single image. That is the shot most photographers come looking for, and it requires standing on this side of the river to get it.

• 3
  For families and those with more than one day

  Shanghai Ocean Aquarium · China Art Museum · Century Park · Disneyland 40 minutes away

  Pudong is considerably more than just Lujiazui. Shanghai Ocean Aquarium sits immediately adjacent to the Oriental Pearl Tower. The China Art Museum (converted from the China Pavilion of the 2010 World Expo) is further south. Century Park is the city's largest green space. And Shanghai Disneyland is 40 minutes by metro — a full day on its own. For families prepared to use Pudong as a base, two to three days here is genuinely comfortable.

• 4
  For business travellers and those arriving at PVG

  Pudong CBD · direct Maglev connection from PVG · no river crossing needed

  If you are arriving at Pudong International Airport, this neighbourhood makes immediate practical sense. The Maglev train from PVG reaches Longyang Road in seven to eight minutes at up to 430 km/h; from there, two stops on Metro Line 2 brings you to Lujiazui. For business travellers with meetings in the Pudong CBD, staying here eliminates the time cost of crossing the river. The hotels are built for this — large, international, well-equipped and reliably efficient.

The case for basing yourself in Lujiazui is straightforward: you are inside the skyline rather than looking at it from across the river. Hotels here have some of the best room views in Shanghai — upper-floor rooms in the riverside properties face the Bund directly, which means waking up to exactly the image that made you want to come to Shanghai in the first place. For business travellers, the Pudong CBD is on the doorstep and Pudong Airport is 20 minutes away by Maglev and metro.

The honest limitations: Lujiazui is quieter than Puxi at night — there is no equivalent to the French Concession's café streets, the lane-house neighbourhoods or the animated food and bar scene of Jing'an. If your itinerary is weighted towards those experiences, staying on the west bank and crossing by metro or ferry for the skyline views may be the more practical arrangement. For the comparison in full: Puxi vs Pudong — which side to stay on.