Guides
Shanghai travel guides, organized by the decision in front of you.
Prepare the trip, land without the first-hour scramble, choose a useful hotel base and turn the major sights into days that still have room to breathe.
Before you fly
Entry, phone, payment and internet
Solve the dependencies that are easiest to fix at home and most annoying to discover at the airport.
Shanghai Travel Requirements 2026: What to Prepare
A current decision guide to entry routes, arrival-card and accommodation documents, plus the practical setup to complete before departure.
Is Shanghai Safe for Tourists? Scams and Emergency Help
A calm guide to tourist-area scams, official transport, traffic, phone security and Shanghai's emergency hotlines.
How to Pay in Shanghai: Alipay, Cards and Cash
The safest payment setup for a first day in Shanghai: Alipay, WeChat Pay, cards, cash, and what to do when one of them fails.
How to Use Alipay in China as a Tourist
Set up Alipay before you fly, test it calmly after landing, and keep a backup for small QR-code surprises.
Alipay Not Working for Tourists: Fix Payment Problems
A five-minute diagnosis for identity, card, bank, merchant and network failures, with backups when the purchase cannot wait.
How to Use WeChat Pay in China as a Tourist with a Foreign Card
Use WeChat Pay as the second route: useful for QR menus, mini-programs, and moments when Alipay is not enough.
Best Apps for Shanghai Travel: Maps, Payment and Taxis
The small app stack that actually matters before you land: payment, maps, translation, mobile data, and banking.
Easy Go for Shanghai Visitors: Do You Need It?
How Easy Go fits with Alipay, Shanghai Pass, visitor services, shopping benefits, transport, and backup planning.
Does Google Maps Work in Shanghai? AMap and Apple Maps Guide
Google Maps is useful for planning, but AMap Global and Chinese address screenshots are better once you are moving.
How to Get Internet in Shanghai as a Tourist
Choose roaming or an eSIM before departure so maps, payment, taxis, and translation work in the first hour.
Does WhatsApp Work in China? Tourist Guide 2026
Understand when WhatsApp works through roaming or a travel eSIM, what local Wi-Fi changes and which communication backup to keep.
Shanghai 240-Hour Visa-Free Transit Guide
A plain-English eligibility and arrival checklist for using Shanghai's 240-hour visa-free transit policy with a confirmed onward journey.
Arrival
Airport transfer and moving around
Choose the right transport for the actual terminal, arrival time, luggage and hotel entrance.
Shanghai Airport to City: Pudong and Hongqiao Transfer Guide
Simple decision rules for Pudong and Hongqiao: metro, Maglev, taxi, app ride, or hotel transfer.
Shanghai Metro Guide for Tourists: Tickets, Cards and Key Lines
How tourists can use contactless foreign cards, transport QR codes or tickets, with fares, airport routes and the lines that matter.
Shanghai Layover Guide: Should You Leave the Airport?
An honest airport-or-city decision for 6, 10, 16 and 24-hour layovers, with entry, luggage, transfer and return-buffer checks.
Shanghai Taxi Guide: DiDi, Apps and Airport Rides
How to use taxis and ride-hailing without getting stuck on pickup points, Chinese addresses, driver calls, or payment.
Commitments
Stay, tickets and shopping decisions
Make the choices that affect the route, the budget or a foreign-passport booking flow.
How to Book Shanghai Attractions as a Foreigner
A foreign-passport booking decision tree for paid tickets, free reservations, official WeChat channels, and backup plans.
Where to Stay in Shanghai: Best Areas for First-Time Visitors
Choose a first Shanghai base by trip length, metro line, room value, and lower-cost hotel areas like Changning, Putuo, and Yangpu.
Shanghai Tax Refund and Shopping Guide for Tourists
How overseas visitors can use Shanghai tax refund options, instant refunds, shopping areas, and departure backup steps.
Build the days
Itineraries, attractions and current routes
Keep Shanghai's icons, but use time, crowd and neighborhood logic to stop them consuming the whole trip.
How to Order Food in Shanghai Without Speaking Chinese
Use QR menus, translated screenshots, dish photos and simple Chinese phrases without letting a broken mini-program ruin the meal.
Is Yu Garden Worth Visiting in Shanghai?
A decision guide to Yu Garden: what is worth seeing, what feels touristy, when to go, and how to pair it with the Bund.
The Bund Shanghai: Best Time, Viewpoints and Walking Route
How to see the Bund strategically, with better timing, quieter viewpoints, and routes that avoid the biggest crowd flow.
Wukang Road and French Concession Walk That Works
A Wukang Road and Anfu Road route that turns one crowded photo stop into a useful two-to-four-hour neighborhood walk.
Shanghai Tower or Oriental Pearl? Best Skyline View
Choose Shanghai Tower, Oriental Pearl or a free river view by height, weather, queues and the skyline photo you actually want.
3 Days in Shanghai: A Realistic First-Timer Itinerary
A realistic three-day Shanghai route for first-time visitors, with the Bund, Yu Garden, neighborhood walks, museums, transport, and booking priorities.
Best Day Trip from Shanghai: Suzhou, Hangzhou or Zhujiajiao?
Compare Suzhou, Hangzhou and Zhujiajiao by cultural payoff, scenery, total travel effort and the number of Shanghai days you have.
Tom Holland Shanghai Route: Zendaya's Spider-Man City Walk
A practical city walk based on Tom Holland and Zendaya's publicly reported Shanghai stops, with evidence labels, addresses, timing, and a limited-time Spider-Man add-on.
Specialist hubs
Compare experiences, museums, local stops and quick planning tools.
Coffee, cocktails, crafts and Chinese-style tattoo work
Choose one experience by time, budget, booking pressure and the kind of memory you want from Shanghai.
Shanghai museum tickets and reservation rules
Compare nine venues by passport flow, booking pressure, location and visitor experience.
Quiet neighborhood shops and route anchors
Use concrete small places to build a slower half-day in Hongkou or Changning.
Three quick Shanghai planning checkers
Test first-day readiness, choose a hotel area or check museum planning pressure.