The hook
China's showcase megacity, where a curved waterfront of 1920s European banks stares across the river at a wall of futuristic towers, and leafy old French Concession lanes hide behind the glass.
01Why it's worth it
Shanghai wears its history as a treaty port and its rush into the future side by side, and the contrast along the Huangpu river is the signature view: on the Bund, a parade of grand Art Deco and neoclassical buildings from the freewheeling, morally complicated boomtown of the 1920s and 30s; directly across the water in Pudong, a skyline of supertall towers that barely existed a generation ago. Away from that spectacle, the pleasures are smaller: the plane-tree avenues and lane houses of the former French Concession, the shikumen alley neighbourhoods, dumpling shops and rooftop bars, the classical Yu Garden in the old town. It is more outward-looking and easier to navigate than Beijing, a good introduction to modern urban China, even if it lacks the imperial weight.
02How to experience it
Walk the Bund at dusk for the lit-up towers across the river, then wander the French Concession's lanes on foot or bike for the human-scale city. Eat soup dumplings, ride up one supertall tower for the view, and see the Yu Garden and old town early before the crowds.
From the locals
Shanghai is the city most often named when travellers argue the big four can be trimmed: "the cities are great, but in the end not that different from those in the rest of the world," one wrote, urging people out toward Yunnan instead. The counter-argument is that the history in them is the point. Either way, the practical note applies here more than anywhere: "almost all of the large western websites are blocked," so arrange a VPN before arrival.