Shanghai

Spring (April and May) and autumn (October and November) bring the most comfortable weather, with mild temperatures and lower humidity. The plum rain season, a spell of damp, overcast weather, usually arrives from mid-June to early July, followed by hot and very humid summers, with temperatures often in the mid-thirties and occasional typhoons from July to September. Winters are short but raw and damp, a few degrees above freezing, with many older buildings poorly heated. Avoid the national holidays around 1 May and the first week of October if you can, when sights, trains and hotels are at their busiest.

Shanghai has two airports. Pudong, the main international airport, is linked to the city by Metro Line 2 and by the Maglev, a magnetic levitation train that covers the 30 kilometres to Longyang Road station in about eight minutes; from there you change to the metro. Hongqiao, in the west, handles mostly domestic flights and is next to Hongqiao Railway Station, the hub for high-speed trains to Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing. The airport link line also connects the two airports. The metro is one of the largest in the world, clean, cheap and signed in English, with security checks at every station; pay with the metro QR code in Alipay, or tap a contactless foreign bank card at many gates. Taxis and ride-hailing through DiDi (also available inside Alipay) are inexpensive. Central Shanghai is good for walking, and shared bicycles make the French Concession and the riverside paths easy to explore.

• Carry your passport at all times; you'll need it for hotel check-in, train tickets, museum entry and some security checks.
• Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before you arrive and link a foreign card; both accept major international cards, and many places don't take cash. Carry some yuan as a backup.
• Many foreign websites and apps, including Google services and most Western social media, are blocked in China. Download offline maps and a translation app before you travel, and understand the rules on VPNs before relying on one.
• Museums and galleries close one day a week, usually Monday, though Shanghai Museum East closes on Tuesday.
• Metro stations and many sights offer luggage storage, which is handy on arrival or departure days.
• Have hotel and restaurant addresses written in Chinese for taxi drivers.

Shanghai's signature is the xiaolongbao, delicate steamed dumplings filled with pork and a mouthful of hot broth; bite a small hole, sip the soup, then eat the rest with a little black vinegar and ginger. Shengjian bao, their pan-fried cousins with crisp bottoms and sesame on top, are the classic breakfast. Try hongshao rou, red-braised pork belly in a sweet soy glaze, scallion-oil noodles, and drunken chicken. In autumn, roughly September to November, hairy crab from the nearby lakes is a seasonal obsession. The city also has a huge café culture, cocktail bars in old villas and some of China's best international restaurants. Tap water isn't safe to drink; use bottled or boiled water.

The area around the Bund and People's Square puts you close to the main sights, with historic hotels in the old bank and trading buildings as well as large international hotels. The former French Concession and Jing'an are leafier and more residential, with boutique hotels, cafés and bars. Lujiazui in Pudong has high-rise hotels with river views, convenient for the Maglev but quieter in the evenings. Hotels register foreign guests with the police, so check that yours accepts foreigners before booking.

China's entry rules have relaxed in recent years, but they vary by nationality and change often, so check the National Immigration Administration and your nearest Chinese embassy before you book. Ordinary passport holders of more than forty countries, including most of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, can currently enter visa-free for up to thirty days for tourism; this arrangement runs until 31 December 2026, so check whether it has been extended if you're travelling later. Citizens of 57 countries, including the United States, can use the 240-hour visa-free transit policy: you must be travelling on to a third country or region with a confirmed onward ticket, arrive at a designated port, which in Shanghai means Pudong or Hongqiao airport or the Shanghai cruise port, and stay within the permitted area, which includes Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The ten days are counted from midnight after your arrival. Anyone who doesn't qualify needs a visa in advance.

Much of old Shanghai was built as lilong, lanes of terraced houses entered through a single gateway from the street. The most typical are shikumen, "stone-gate" houses that mixed Chinese courtyard plans with Western terraced rows, built in their thousands from the 1870s to the 1930s. Families once crowded into single rooms, with cooking and washing spilling into the alleys. Many lanes have been demolished for redevelopment, while others, such as Tianzifang and Xintiandi, have been converted into shops and restaurants. To see lanes that are still lived in, wander the side streets of the French Concession and Jing'an, and look through the gateways; be respectful, as these are homes.

The best way to understand Shanghai is to see it from the Huangpu. River cruises leave from the Bund in the evening and run past both banks, and the riverside paths now stretch for many kilometres on each side, from the old shipyards and warehouses in the north to the West Bund in the south, linking parks, art spaces and former industrial buildings. Suzhou Creek, which joins the Huangpu at the northern end of the Bund, has a pleasant waterside walk past historic bridges and warehouses, including the striking Art Deco Broadway Mansions.

Shanghai's historic lanes are under constant pressure from redevelopment and tourism; spend your money in small family businesses, ask before photographing residents, and keep your voice down in residential alleys. In the water towns, choose quieter times and stay overnight if you can, rather than joining the busiest day-trip crowds. Use the metro rather than taxis where possible, carry a reusable bottle, and refuse unnecessary plastic bags and packaging. Respect security checks and avoid photographing police or government buildings.