I was born in New York, but my family is from Shanghai, so I’ve spent a lot of summers there. The last time I went is 2010 so my information may be ever so slightly out of date, but I will be sharing many pointers for those looking to visit Shanghai, and China in general! 

General tips:

• #1 tip is to be super careful with traffic/crossing the street. Pedestrians do not have right of way in China! This is a real, real danger. Be very careful!
• Be careful with street food (and street vendors in general).
• Be prepared to squat. Most modern, industrialized places will have standard sitting toilets, but you will likely need to use a squatting toilet at some point.
• Bring a pack of tissues around. You will find that many restrooms are, ah… BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper lol). Hand sanitizer is recommended as well.
• Be prepared to barter a lot. Like a lot. Cut any price by at least one half. If they won’t give it to you, start walking away – usually they will come around. Conversely, also be wary and don’t show too much interest in too many things. If you stop at a stand to ‘just look at’ something, they may stop you and hassle you and not let you go until you buy it.
• Shanghai is a touristy place. Be vigilant! Crooks like to target those who look conspicuously foreign (this is not just a reference to skin color; even when I’m out and about, my relatives warn me strictly against speaking any English). Be careful of crowded places. Only take clearly marked taxis. And this might sound mean, but I would generally suggest not to give beggars money (this is not a general philosophy of mine, I give people money in NYC but never in Shanghai. it’s just not safe…)

I don’t mean to make Shanghai sound scary or primitive. Overall, it is a very modern, glamorous city; its subway system, for example, is far superior to any American mass transit I have been on. Next to NYC, Shanghai is my favorite place in the world. Just practice everyday common sense and vigilance and you will be fine.

Shopping

• Nanjing Road is the most famous – it’s big, it’s glitzy, it’s like 5th Avenue, Champs-Elysees, etc. The Pedestrian zone (步行街) has a lot of nice, reasonably-priced shops, including this enormous store for Chinese snacks, 第一食品公司 (“Shanghai first food”), that is CRAZY and wonderful and well worth a visit.
• Also check out the “Grand Gateway” (港汇广场). When I visited Shanghai in 2005, right after construction was completed, the mall was the most exciting thing ever. It’s still pretty exciting. Very high end and fun to browse. It’s located in the Xujiahui shopping district, which also has plenty of more reasonably priced shops and malls, such as “Zhong bai liu dian” (sorry, I can’t find the English translation or Chinese characters for this at the moment. but xujiahui is totally worth a look)
• You’ll find the cheapest stores on random streets, in subway stations, etc. and many other malls that are not as high end.
• “Shi Liu Pu” Market: this huge marketplace where you can buy ready-made things or tailor-make ANYTHING. Literally anything, not just clothing! I came here the summer before college and got my bedding done here, Twin XL fitted sheets, etc.: a full set for like $15. I got a wool winter coat done here, a semi-formal dress, and even a custom-fit classic qipao dress. My only advice is that for clothing, only buy it if they have a finished product available that you see and like. Some tailors might have photos from a magazine and say they will replicate that look, but often it falls short.
  Bring along anything that needs a simple tailoring job, it will cost next to nothing.
  To be safe, make sure to leave at least 2 weeks before the end of your trip for them to finish the product. Generally they can finish things in less than a week if you emphasize you will be out of the country soon. Also, keep in mind: sometimes they might ask for you to come in again for a second fitting before the product is finalized (I had to do this for my qipao, I doubt other things necessitate such exact fitting).

Food

• American fast food: McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, etc. are definitely worth visiting in China! Their menus are different from their menus in the US. For example I believe McDonald’s and/or KFC serves traditional Chinese breakfast foods like congee.
• Chinese “fast food”: two chains that I really like are “大娘水饺” (da niang shui jiao) and “永和大王” (Yong he da wang). DNSJ specializes in jiaozi (dumplings), which is one of my favorite foods (my mom says this is very Northern of me! wontons are more Shanghai style). I don’t remember the full menu for YHDW but it has delicious breakfast foods. I highly recommend the classic Chinese breakfast of “dou jiang” (salted soy milk with some other things in it) and “you tiao” (I guess I would describe it as some sort of bread… so good).
• The Pedestrian zone of Nanjing Road (步行街) has enormous soup dumplings.  I don’t remember the name of the restaurant but just ask for the huge soup dumplings at 步行街 lol. Also in the pedestrian zone is “燕云楼”(yan yun lou), which has the best Peking duck ever. I think it’s one of the oldest Peking Duck restaurants in Shanghai. I cannot recommend Peking Duck enough, it’s been one of my favorite foods since I was very young.
• 王家沙 (Wang jia sha) is one of my favorite chain stores for breakfast/lunch foods. Their wonton soup and soup dumplings are crazy good and you can get a full meal for like $2. It is more traditional restaurant style though, not Westernized at all.
• Something to try once: mini lobsters. These are quite popular in Shanghai, they prepare them in this spicy sauce (you can get them milder) and eat them with gloves and bibs, it’s kind of crazy but quite tasty.
• I adore hot pot. I haven’t gone a lot in Shanghai, and don’t remember a lot of restaurant names, but I have been to 小肥羊 (“xiao fei yang,” literally “small fat lamb”) and remember it was good.

Stereotypically touristy areas:

• You MUST go to the Bund. so pretty, especially at night
• As mentioned earlier, Nanjing Road is nice, definitely worth a look
• The Pearl Tower… is famous, but I don’t think it’s exciting. It’s one of those places you feel the need to go to, but don’t feel particularly rewarded for. Like the Empire State Building in NYC, who really enjoys that?
• Chenghuang Miao (City god temple) is pretty cool. Definitely touristy, but worth at least a quick look! Also check out Yuyuan Garden nearby. Similarly, the Jing An Temple is considered a tourist attraction but I’m pretty sure I only know of the name as a popular bus stop. Don’t think I’ve been.

Lifestyle:

• Nightlife is the one area I know almost nothing about because I was always with family and never went out…not that most CAPS audiences would be interested in this, anyway. Still, if Chinese nightlife is anything like Korean nightlife – it is less crazy and clubbing oriented than American nightlife. When my classmates and I “went out” in Korea, this just meant we got some bbq, then went to a bar, and then some karaoke. And the bar wasn’t just pounding shots…Korean bars are situated for hanging out – we would get a table, some of us drank and some didn’t (we were all of legal age in Korea…), had some snacks, chatted, etc., it was very casual and fun, not just drunken debauchery.
•  I can say, though: you MUST try karaoke at least once. KTV is incredibly fun. Karaoke in Asia is not like a public karaoke bar in the US, you get a private room to sing your heart out, can order food, etc. and it’s very reasonably priced. There are karaoke places in US (Chinatown, Ktown, etc.) but they are quite expensive and not nearly as nice as KTV/karaoke in Asia. Asian places often are clean, high-tech (touch-screen song selection, strobe lights, etc.), and infinitely cheaper than US options. Go to any major chain and they will have tons of English music. I went to someplace called 好乐迪 (‘hao le di’) and they had plenty of current American songs (I went in 2010 and they had Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Backstreet Boys, etc.).

• It might seem odd that I am devoting a whole section to such a frivolous topic, but personally I am completely obsessed with Asian health & beauty products. One of the things that excites me most about going to Asian countries is looking at and buying beauty products. In China, I love just looking around Watson’s, a chain drugstore/beauty store (kind of like CVS or Ulta).
• One thing I would highly recommend checking out is Asian sunscreen. Unlike American or European sunscreen, Asian sunscreen is dry and light as water – not heavy or greasy. My favorite is Biore UV Perfect, in a white bottle (they may have repackaged since 2010 though!). It kept my oily skin perfectly matte in the oppressive Shanghai summer, it’s a bit too dry for when I’m back in the US/when it’s less humid. Sunkiller is also a popular brand.
• Something else that is popular/cheap in Asia and not so popular/expensive in the US: cleansing oils. Worth checking out. Basically, they will take off a full face of waterproof sunscreen, makeup, etc. in one go without leaving an oily residue or making your face feel super dry.
• Blotting sheets are very, very cheap compared to the US – I always buy in bulk.
• Asian skincare and makeup in general is really fun 🙂 They tend to have really cute and clever packaging, and often smell incredible

So just to summarize, places you must go, in my opinion: Xujiahui shopping center (suggest at least one day), Nanjing road, and the Bund. I would highly suggest trying karaoke too – allot several hours to this (at least 3 hours – once you start, you can’t stop!). And, um, EAT. EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT.

Well, that’s all I can think of for now! Feel free to email me for more details/if you have any questions!

Just writing this post makes me ache with nostalgia. I can’t put into words how much I miss and love Shanghai and want to go back!!