Shanghai
China
A waterfront of 1920s banks facing a skyline from the future, with lane houses and gardens in between
Photo by Edward He on Unsplash
Photos by Ralf Leineweber, Zhou Xian, Nuno Alberto and Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of China
March to May, and September to November — summer is 35°C and humid, winter is damp and cold
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 215mm in Aug
Where it is
31.23°N, 121.47°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Walk the Bund after dark and again at six in the morning, when it is locals doing tai chi
- Eat xiaolongbao somewhere with a queue
- Wander the French Concession with no route
- Take the Maglev once, for the eight minutes
- Set up Alipay before you fly, not after you land
Shanghai travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget China
Mid-rangeChina runs on Alipay and WeChat Pay, and both now accept foreign cards — set one up before you arrive, because a great many places have no other way to take money. Cash is legally accepted and increasingly unfamiliar to staff.
ATMs & cards
Bank of China, ICBC and China Construction Bank machines take foreign cards; many others do not. Machines cap a withdrawal at ¥2,500 to ¥3,000. Keep some cash for taxis and small shops, but expect to use a payment app for almost everything.
Avoid these
- the machines at smaller banks, which often refuse foreign cards
Use these instead
- Bank of China
- ICBC
- China Construction Bank
Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before you arrive — both take foreign cards now, and a great many places have no other way to be paid.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of China
Very safeExtremely safe for street crime, day or night, and women travelling alone report few problems. The frictions are practical: many Western apps and sites are blocked and a VPN needs installing before arrival, payment without Alipay or WeChat is genuinely difficult, and taxi drivers rarely read Latin script — have your destination in Chinese characters. Air quality is poor on some winter days.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (8 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the "tea ceremony" and "art student" approaches on Nanjing Road — a friendly English-speaking stranger, a bill for hundreds of dollars at the end of it — the city’s one persistent scam
- unlicensed taxis outside the stations — use Didi or the official rank
- crossing the road on a green man — electric scooters are silent and do not stop
Street crime is close to absent. The friction is the payment apps and the internet, both of which want setting up before you fly..
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa China visa rules
No visa neededup to 30 days
China has been running a unilateral visa-free trial for these nationalities and has repeatedly extended and widened it — tourism, business and family visits, up to 30 days. It is a trial with an end date that keeps moving (currently the end of 2026); confirm on the official site before booking anything.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 10 days
A 240-hour visa-free transit is available at many entry points if you hold an onward ticket to a third country. It is not a tourist visa and the rules on where you may travel are specific.
Visa required in advance€126 for most, more for US passports
An L tourist visa, applied for at a visa centre in person with biometrics.
How to get it: If you need the visa, book the appointment at a Chinese Visa Application Service Centre early — slots run weeks out in peak season and the application asks for a full day-by-day itinerary with bookings.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: the arrival card
Exit/Entry Health DeclarationRequired
In the 24 hours before you arrive, and again when you leave.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- flight number
- your address in China
Produces a QR code scanned at the border. The form states that a false declaration is a criminal matter, not a formality.
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of China
Good but costlyRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Rabies for longer stays
- Japanese encephalitis for rural summer stays
Getting treated
International clinics and the VIP wings of major hospitals in Beijing are good, English-speaking and expensive; ordinary public hospitals are crowded and require payment before treatment, in advance, at a cashier. Insurance and a translation app are both genuinely necessary.
Do not drink the tap water. Air quality in Beijing is poor on some winter days and worth checking if you have any respiratory condition. Pharmacies stock both Western and traditional medicine — be clear which you are asking for.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
OutstandingXiaolongbao are the city dish and the soup inside them is hot enough to hurt — bite a corner first. Shengjianbao are the fried version. Hairy crab in October and November is a seasonal obsession with prices to match. The dumpling shop with a queue of locals is always the right one.
Nightlife
Cocktail bars that win world lists, rooftops over the Bund, and a speakeasy scene hidden behind more unmarked doors than anywhere.
- the Bund rooftops — the view you came for, at the price it costs
- the Former French Concession — Yongkang Lu, Anfu Lu and the lanes off them
- Found 158 — a sunken courtyard of bars off Julu Lu
- Jing’an — the newer cocktail rooms
Closing: Bars to 02:00, clubs later, and the metro stops around 23:00 — plan the way home.
A beer in a bar: ¥40–70
Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before you arrive; a good many bars take nothing else.
Getting around
Easy and cheap- DiDiWorks here
- AmapWorks here
- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
- GrabNot here
DiDi inside Alipay as well, which is the easier route for a visitor · Amap aggregates several fleets
- From the airport
- Pudong to central Shanghai ¥180–250, against ¥50 on the maglev and metro
- Against a taxi
- Level with the meter, and far easier than explaining a destination in a taxi.
Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before you fly — both now take foreign cards, and DiDi inside Alipay needs no separate account.
Time zone and your working day
Asia/Shanghai — 12 hours ahead of you
0 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — — your time, — theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 21:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 21:00–05:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of China
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2.2× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 2.1× the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for China, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Mandarin
- Hello你好 — Nǐ hǎonee HOW
- Please请 — Qǐngching
- Thank you谢谢 — XièxieSHYEH-shyeh
- Yes / No是 / 不是 — Shì / Bù shìshrr / boo shrr
4 more phrases
- Excuse me不好意思 — Bù hǎoyìsiboo how-EE-srr
- How much is it?多少钱 — Duōshao qiánDWOR-shaow chyen
- I do not understand我不懂 — Wǒ bù dǒngwor boo DONG
- Too expensive太贵了 — Tài guì letie GWAY luh
English is far less common than visitors expect once you leave a hotel. A translation app and the name of your destination written in characters are worth more than any phrase here.
Religion
Officially atheist, with Buddhist and folk traditions
The state is officially atheist and religious organisation is tightly regulated, but Buddhist, Taoist and folk practice is widespread and visible at temples. Do not discuss religious policy, particularly regarding Tibet or Xinjiang.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before arriving; almost nothing takes cash comfortably
- Offer and receive anything, especially business cards, with both hands
- Carry the name of your destination written in Chinese characters
- Accept tea when offered, and tap two fingers on the table to say thank you while it is being poured
Don't
- Do not tip; it is not the custom and can cause confusion
- Do not stick chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice
- Do not discuss Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang or the Party with people you have just met — it can create problems for them
- Do not expect Google, WhatsApp, Instagram or most Western services to work without a VPN arranged in advance
Where to stay in Shanghai
No Holistay rentals in Shanghai yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Shanghai on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Pudong PVG
45 minfrom the airport· 33 km as the crow flies
Maglev in 8 minutes, then the metro.
Also worth pricing: Hongqiao SHA — domestic flights and the high-speed trains.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
