The plan at a glance

The Bund and the river, then the old town and Pudong, then the French Concession

Shanghai rewards walking more than any other Chinese city, so the plan is built on three long walks with the metro in between. Day one starts on the Bund before the crowds, follows Nanjing Road to People's Square and the Shanghai Museum, and comes back to the river for a night cruise from Shiliupu. Day two is the old walled town, Yu Garden and the City God Temple in the morning, then the ferry or metro across to Pudong for the 118th-floor observatory of the Shanghai Tower and the riverside view back at the Bund. Day three is the former French Concession from Xintiandi to Tianzifang and Wukang Road, ending at the Jing'an Temple. Yu Garden and the Shanghai Museum keep Monday closures, so put day two on any other day.

Day 1The Bund, Nanjing Road and the river at nightThe Bund · Nanjing Road East · Shanghai Museum (People's Square) · Huangpu River night cruise from Shiliupu4 sights · 1.8 km on foot Day 2The old town and the top of PudongYu Garden · City God Temple and the Yuyuan Bazaar · Shanghai Tower · Lujiazui riverside and the Oriental Pearl Tower4 sights · 680 m on foot Day 3The French Concession: Xintiandi, Tianzifang and Wukang RoadXintiandi · Tianzifang · Wukang Road and the Wukang Mansion · Jing'an Temple4 sights · 1.5 km on foot

At a glance

Ways to use these days

Lightest day on foot: Day 2 — 2.2 km between stops
Most walking: Day 3 — 6.6 km

Morning

1Historic waterfront

The Bund

A kilometre and a half of banks, hotels and trading houses from the 1900s to the 1930s stands along the Huangpu, from the steel Waibaidu Bridge of 1908 over Suzhou Creek to the Customs House with its 1927 clock tower and the domed former HSBC building; the raised promenade opposite looks straight across the river at the Oriental Pearl Tower and the three supertall towers of Lujiazui. Walk it at 8:00, when the only company is people doing tai chi and flying kites, and come back after dark, when both banks are lit.

Plan about 1 h 15 min

1.2 km · about 18 min on foot

2Pedestrian shopping street

Nanjing Road East

China's most famous shopping street runs a kilometre and a half west from the Bund to People's Square, pedestrian since 1999, lined with the department stores of the 1930s, Wing On and Sincere and the Sun, and their neon successors; a little electric train runs its length for those who would rather not walk. It is loudest and brightest after dark, but in the morning it is the direct road to the museum.

Plan about 1 h

Midday

LunchThe side streets off East Nanjing Road have the old-style Shanghai canteens: Wu Fang Zhai for rice dumplings, Shen Da Cheng for sweets, and the food courts of the department stores; the malls around People's Square cover everything else.

Afternoon

620 m · about 10 min on foot

3Museum

Shanghai Museum (People's Square)

The 1996 building on People's Square, shaped like an ancient bronze ding cooking vessel, was for thirty years the home of China's finest collection of bronzes, ceramics, calligraphy and painting; those galleries have moved to the new Shanghai Museum East in Pudong, and the People's Square halls now stage one big exhibition at a time, the ancient civilizations of the Americas until late 2027. Individual visitors walk in with an ID through the south gate, no reservation needed since September 2025; the square outside was the racecourse of the old International Settlement.

Plan about 2 h
9:00–17:00, last entry 16:00; closed Mondays; walk in with ID, reservations only in holiday periods

Evening

Metro line 10 from People's Square to Yuyuan Garden, one stop, then a 10-minute walk to Shiliupu wharf; or a 30-minute walk back down East Nanjing Road and south along the Bund

4River cruise

Huangpu River night cruise from Shiliupu

The classic Shanghai evening is a boat from Shiliupu, the old steamer wharf at the south end of the Bund, up the river past the lit façades of the Bund on one side and the Oriental Pearl, the Jin Mao Tower, the World Financial Center and the Shanghai Tower on the other, and back, a loop of about an hour with departures through the evening. Tickets are real-name: buy them at the wharf windows with a passport or in the Huangpu River Cruise WeChat mini-program, and go on the open upper deck.

Plan about 1 h 15 min
Shiliupu wharf, 481 Zhongshan East 2nd Road; tickets at the windows or the WeChat mini-program; passport

Morning

1Classical garden

Yu Garden

A Ming official built this two-hectare garden between 1559 and 1577 for his aged father, and it is the finest classical garden in the city: pavilions, halls and covered walkways around ponds, rockeries of yellow stone, walls that end in dragons' heads, and the Exquisite Jade Rock, a porous boulder said to have been meant for the Song emperor's garden. Be at the gate at 9:00; by mid-morning the bazaar outside, with the Huxinting teahouse on its zigzag bridge, has filled up.

Plan about 1 h 30 min
9:00–17:00 in high season, 9:00–16:30 in low; keep the visit off a Monday

160 m · about 3 min on foot

2Taoist temple and bazaar

City God Temple and the Yuyuan Bazaar

The Taoist temple of Shanghai's protecting deity was founded in 1403 in the walled Chinese town, and the market that grew around it became the Yuyuan Bazaar: a maze of lanes of Ming-style shops rebuilt in the 1990s, selling tea, chopsticks, pearls, folk crafts and the snacks that keep the crowds moving. Step into the temple's incense-filled halls, then take the lane south to Shanghai Old Street, the last stretch of the old town with shophouses still in use.

Plan about 1 h

Midday

LunchNanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant by the zigzag bridge has queued for its xiaolongbao since 1900; the lanes of the Yuyuan Bazaar and Shanghai Old Street have every other Shanghai snack, from scallion pancakes to crab-roe buns.

Afternoon

Metro line 14 from Yuyuan Garden to Lujiazui, two stops, about 10 minutes; or a 10-minute walk to the Fuxing Road ferry pier, a five-minute crossing to Dongchang Road and a 15-minute walk

3Observation deck

Shanghai Tower

The 632-metre twisting tower, the tallest in China and the third tallest in the world when it opened in 2015, carries the Top of Shanghai observatory on its 118th floor at 546 metres, reached by lifts that were the world's fastest at 20.5 metres a second; the view takes in the whole bend of the river, the Bund at your feet and, on a clear day, the sea. Tickets are tied to an ID, so bring your passport; the 125th floor, with the 1,000-tonne damper that steadies the building in typhoons, is on the dearer ticket.

Plan about 1 h 30 min
Real-name ticket, passport needed; go in the late afternoon and stay for the lights

Evening

520 m · about 8 min on foot

4Skyline district

Lujiazui riverside and the Oriental Pearl Tower

The financial district on the Pudong bank was farmland in 1990; now the 468-metre Oriental Pearl TV Tower of 1994, the pagoda-like Jin Mao Tower of 1999 and the bottle-opener silhouette of the World Financial Center stand around the Shanghai Tower, linked by a raised circular footbridge above the traffic. Walk down to Binjiang Avenue, the riverside promenade below the towers, for the view every postcard shows in reverse: the whole curve of the Bund, floodlit, across the water.

Plan about 1 h 15 min

Morning

1Restored shikumen district

Xintiandi

Two blocks of 1920s shikumen, the stone-gated brick lane houses that once housed most of Shanghai, were gutted and rebuilt in 2001 as an open-air quarter of cafés, restaurants and boutiques, the model for every redevelopment since; a shikumen museum shows what the houses were like inside. On the corner, the house where the Chinese Communist Party held its first congress in July 1921 is now a memorial museum, free with a passport.

Plan about 1 h

1.5 km · about 23 min on foot

2Lane-house arts quarter

Tianzifang

Where Xintiandi is polished, Tianzifang is lived in: a warren of 1930s lilong lanes off Taikang Road where washing still hangs above the doors, filled since the early 2000s with artists' studios, craft shops, tea sellers, cafés and small bars. Go in at Lane 210 and let yourself get lost; the alleys are narrow, the shops tiny and the best of it is upstairs and around corners.

Plan about 1 h 15 min

Midday

LunchTianzifang's lanes are lined with cafés and small restaurants, from Shanghainese home cooking to Thai and Japanese; Xintiandi's courtyards are the smarter, pricier option on the way.

Afternoon

Taxi about 10 minutes, or a 35-minute walk west along Fuxing Middle Road through the plane-tree streets

3Historic street

Wukang Road and the Wukang Mansion

The former French Concession is a grid of plane-tree avenues of villas, garden apartments and consulates, and Wukang Road is its finest kilometre: at the southern end the wedge-shaped Wukang Mansion, the Normandie Apartments designed by László Hudec in 1924, has become the most photographed building in the city. Walk the road north past the plaques on the old houses, with detours into Anfu Road and Ferguson Lane for the cafés and bookshops.

Plan about 1 h 15 min

Evening

A 30-minute walk north up Wukang Road and Huashan Road, or metro line 7 from Changshu Road to Jing'an Temple, one stop

4Buddhist temple

Jing'an Temple

A temple has stood on West Nanjing Road since 1216, and its origins go back to 247, but the present halls were rebuilt in the 2000s in Song style with camphor-wood columns and gilded copper roofs that glow between the malls and towers of the Jing'an business district; the main hall holds a silver Buddha, and the courtyard fills with incense from the morning on. It is the right end for the day: the temple is lit at dusk, and the restaurants of West Nanjing Road and the Jing'an Kerry Centre are across the street.

Plan about 1 h

Before you go

Good to know in Shanghai

Tickets and opening days

From September 1, 2025 the Shanghai Museum on People's Square no longer requires reservations for individual visitors: enter through the south gate with valid identification, 9:00–17:00 with last entry at 16:00; closed on Mondays except national holidays. Advance booking still applies in national holidays, summer and winter school breaks and for popular special exhibitions.Source: Shanghai Municipal Government · checked Sep 2026
The People's Square building is showing the exhibition On Top of the World Tree: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas through November 2027 and hosts no other exhibitions during that time; overseas visitors who want a timed ticket can book through the museum's WeChat mini-program or trip.com.Source: Shanghai Museum · checked Sep 2026
Yuyuan Garden (No. 168 Fuyou Road) is listed as open daily 9:00–17:00 in peak season and 9:00–16:30 in the off season.Source: Meet in Shanghai, the official Shanghai travel site · checked Sep 2026
Huangpu River cruises leave most often from Shiliupu Tourist Quay at 481 Zhongshan Road East 2, close to the Bund and Yuyuan Garden, with other departures from the North Bund cruise terminal, Qinhuangdao Road and Jinling Road East quays. Tickets are sold in the Shanghai Huangpu River Cruise WeChat mini-program, the cruise companies' WeChat accounts, the SH MaaS app, third-party platforms and the ticket windows.Source: Meet in Shanghai, the official Shanghai travel site · checked Sep 2026

Getting around

Since June 28, 2025 the whole Shanghai Metro network accepts tap-to-ride with contactless UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB cards and e-CNY hard wallets. Passengers must enable their card's small-amount password-free payment feature; cards with Type-B chips or without the ODA function are excluded.Source: Shanghai Municipal Government · checked Sep 2026

Questions

3 days in Shanghai: quick answers

Is 3 days enough for Shanghai?

Three days cover the Bund and the river, the old town, the Pudong skyline from the top, the museum and the best of the former French Concession. A fourth day allows the permanent collection at Shanghai Museum East in Pudong, the water town of Zhujiajiao, the Jade Buddha Temple and the M50 galleries, or Shanghai Disneyland.

Which days should I plan around?

The Shanghai Museum is closed on Mondays. Yu Garden's official listing gives 9:00–17:00 in high season, and visitor guides consistently report a Monday closure, so keep day two off a Monday as well. The Bund, the towers, the cruise and the temples are open every day.

Do I need a reservation for anything?

Since September 2025 individual visitors walk into the Shanghai Museum at People's Square with an ID and no booking, except in national holidays and school breaks. The Shanghai Tower observatory and the river cruise sell real-name tickets, so carry your passport; the cruise can be bought at the wharf windows or in the Huangpu River Cruise WeChat mini-program.

How do I pay for the metro?

Since June 2025 the whole Shanghai Metro takes contactless Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB and UnionPay cards tapped at the gate, as long as the card's small-amount no-PIN payment is switched on; Alipay and WeChat ride codes linked to a foreign card work too. Taxis are cheap and take cards or Alipay.

How much walking is this itinerary?

About 4 km in a straight line between sights on day one, under 1 km plus the ferry or metro on day two, and about 2 km plus two short rides on day three; the Bund, Nanjing Road and Wukang Road are all flat, pedestrian walks.

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3 Days in Shanghai

The Bund and the river, then the old town and Pudong, then the French Concession

Ways to use these days