Shanghai, China-7-day-itinerary

Worth clearing up before day one: the Shanghai Tower and the Oriental Pearl Tower are two different buildings, not the same one with two names, and there’s no beach resort town called Changxing a couple hours from the city worth planning a day around. Here’s a version of a week in Shanghai built on things that actually exist.

Day 1: Arrival

Land at Pudong or Hongqiao. Skip the Maglev unless you want the novelty ride; it only reaches Longyang Road station, still a Metro Line 2 transfer or taxi from downtown, so it saves nothing once your luggage is involved. Walk The Bund on arrival, free and open all hours, then return after dark when Pudong’s skyline lights up across the water, the version worth photographing.

Day 2: Gardens and the Scam Zone

Yu Garden runs about Y40 and earns it; skip the surrounding bazaar, where most “Nanxiang” dumpling stalls have no connection to the actual original restaurant inside the garden itself. Lunch at Jia Jia Tang Bao for the local xiaolongbao (Y20-30, queue expected). Spend the afternoon on Nanjing Road, free shopping and simultaneously the densest scam zone in the city. If a stranger offers to “practice English” with you here, that’s the tea ceremony scam opening, ending in a bill of Y3,000-10,000 with the exit conveniently blocked. Real tea ceremonies run Y50-200 with a printed menu shown upfront.

Day 3: Height and Museums

Shanghai Tower’s 118th-floor deck runs about Y180 (up to Y199 on holidays), the highest observation point in the city, a separate building entirely from the shorter, older Oriental Pearl Tower nearby. Follow with Shanghai Museum East in Pudong, free and, since September 2024, requiring no advance reservation for individuals; walk in with ID. Evening: Din Tai Fung for polished xiaolongbao (Y80-120) if you want it, just know it’s Taiwanese, not a Shanghai original.

Day 4: French Concession and Laneways

Spend the morning wandering Wukang Road and Anfu Road in the French Concession, the neighborhood built for aimless walking rather than a checklist. In the afternoon, cross to Tianzifang, indie shops and cafes packed into old shikumen laneways, scrappier and more rewarding than the reconstructed, upscale Xintiandi nearby, worth a walk-through but not a meal.

Day 5: Suzhou Day Trip

Take the bullet train from Hongqiao station, 25-30 minutes to Suzhou with frequent departures throughout the day. Suzhou’s classical gardens make this a genuine full day, and given the short ride and gardens clustered near the station, it beats Hangzhou for a single-day option. Return to Shanghai for dinner.

Day 6: Hangzhou, Done Properly

A full week means Hangzhou can get the overnight it deserves instead of a rushed there-and-back. The bullet train from Hongqiao runs 45-55 minutes; spend the day walking West Lake’s causeways and temples, including Lingyin Temple, then stay over rather than racing back for a late train.

Day 7: Zhujiajiao and Departure

Head back to Shanghai in the morning, then take Metro Line 17 out to Zhujiajiao, a water town about an hour from the city center, before your flight. Canals are free to walk, combined garden tickets run roughly Y60-90, and it’s a half-day outing, so time it around your departure rather than the other way around.

Where to Stay

Base near the Bund or in the French Concession for the shortest hops to everything above. Every hotel is required to register overnight foreign guests with local police; reputable places handle this automatically at check-in once you hand over your passport.

Transportation

Metro fares run Y3 for the first 6km, typically Y4-8, across 20 lines operating roughly 5:30am to 11pm. Bind a foreign card to the Metro Dazhong app or use Alipay’s transit QR, which works citywide. Alipay and WeChat Pay have accepted international Visa, Mastercard, and JCB cards directly since mid-2023, bound through your passport with no local bank account needed; late-2025 verification adds a day or two of lag, so set this up before you fly. Didi, with an English interface, beats hailing a street taxi on price and reliability; if you flag one down anyway, stick to marked teal Dazhong or turquoise Qiangsheng cabs and insist the meter runs.

Visa Notes

Travelers from 55-plus countries, including the US, UK, EU nations, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Brazil, qualify for 240-hour visa-free transit covering Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang with a confirmed onward ticket, which comfortably covers this whole week including both day trips. Register at entry.

Things to Know

Summer runs hot and humid, worsened by the plum rain season from mid-June to mid-July. Spring and autumn are milder and better suited to the amount of walking this itinerary involves. Avoid Golden Week (October 1-7) entirely, when every attraction on this list hits capacity and prices spike to match.

Install and test a VPN before you leave home, since Google, Maps, WhatsApp, and Instagram are all blocked and there’s no downloading a VPN once you’ve landed. Apple Maps and Amap both work locally without any workaround, so at least getting between water towns and train stations won’t require guesswork.

A Note on Airport Arrival

Skip any tout at the arrivals hall offering a flat “special” taxi rate, or claiming the official queue is closed; it isn’t, and the fare they’re quoting runs 2-3x the meter. Walk to the marked rank and get a teal Dazhong or turquoise Qiangsheng cab instead, insisting on the meter. Expect roughly Y180-220 plus tolls for the ride from Pudong to the Bund, 45-60 minutes depending on traffic and the time of day.

One More Thing on Food

Jia Jia Tang Bao and Yang’s Fry Dumpling both take cash or mobile pay, no cards, so keep some yuan on hand even if you’ve set up Alipay before landing. It’s a small detail, but it’s the difference between a smooth lunch and standing at the front of a queue fumbling with a wallet nobody wants to see.