The sights of Shanghai in a day
Summary
It was such a long time ago that I last visited Shanghai, that I won’t write a full entry for the city. Only to say that its a must if visiting China – not only because it is often a transport hub you pass through, but as a destination on its own. It won’t be the classical China you were expecting – it will be far more than that as this city typifies the modern day China – brash, modern and full of energy. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Shanghai at times feels like New York City on steroids as it rapidly catches up on just about every metric you can think of
Obviously its always better to have more time, but I reckon you could blast the highlights of Shanghai in a day (leaving yourself with some appetite for seeing the rest Shanghai has to offer when you return). The things I really recommend focusing on are:
- The classical walk along The Bund to see the magnificent skyscrapers looking across the river
- Wandering through East Nanjing Road in amongst the neon signs and sheer commercialism of it all
- Having dinner and drinks in uber stylish and pretty French Concession
- Taking in the views from the observation deck of the Shanghai Tower (the world’s second tallest building) or Shanghai Word Financial Centre
- Eating some of the wonderful Shanghai dumplings filled with scrumptious soups
highlights
#1 The classical and sensational walk along The Bund to see the skyscrapers looking across the Yangzi River
#2 The sheer mayhem and commercialism of it all in East Nanjing Road
3. Having lunch or dinner in the beautifully leafy and uber cool French Concession District
4. The incredible views from the top of the Shanghai Word Financial Centre
5. Shanghai Dumplings - amazing!
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other World-Class City Experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone