Fronted by Taiwanese diva/curator Victoria Lu and billed as a ‘platform for the most exciting art from China and the world’, MOCA is Shanghai’s funkiest museum gallery by far. The art, though often trend-conscious, is also accessible and interesting. There is no permanent collection; instead there is a series of temporary shows. As you walk up the spiral ramp of this all-glass cocoon, past the wacky installations, you’re presented with a terrific city panorama.

Phone:

+86 21 6327 9900

Opening hours:

10am-6pm Mon, Tue, Thur-Sun; 10am-10pm Wed

Address:

Gate 7, People’s Park, 231 Nanjing Xi Lu

The Bund (or Waitan to the Chinese) is Shanghai’s most famous landmark. Developed largely in the early years of the 20th century, it is a kilometre-long waterfront sweep of the most magnificently pompous buildings. Apart from their diverse architectural styles, which range from neo-Grecian to Italian Renaissance and art deco, the buildings are impressive in terms of scale and height – a number of them have at some point claimed (and quickly conceded) the title of tallest building in Asia.

Phone:

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Opening hours:

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Address:

West of the Huangpu River

This 468m tower is undeniably the principal icon of Shanghai and, with its gaudy pink spheres, a much-loved fixture on the city’s skyline. Completed in 1994, tourists come to the tower both to admire its unusual structure and to look out over Puxi and Pudong from inside its pink spheres. The spheres contain exhibitions, shops, restaurants and conference halls. There is even a rotating Chinese/Western buffet inside the middle bubble.

Phone:

+86 21 5879 3003

Opening hours:

8am-9.30pm daily

Address:

1 Shiji Dadao

New York has its Meatpacking District and London has Hoxton: Shanghai has Moganshan Lu. In a grim industrial park beside the fetid Suzhou Creek, Moganshan’s chill warehouses offer a solution to the high rents and cramped spaces faced by artists elsewhere in the city. So it’s here that Shanghai’s underground art scene began – and is now blossoming. Moganshan also offers one-stop shopping for art initiates, and local design boutiques, art deco furniture and cafés.

Phone:

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Opening hours:

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Address:

Around Suzhou Creek, north of the centre

The Shanghai Museum was established in 1952 in an old bank building down near the Bund. This distinctive new building opened in 1996 at a cost of around US$50 million. The 120,000 or so pieces on show span Chinese history from the Neolithic Age right up to the present day. Superb collections of sculpture, calligraphy, coins, furniture, ceramics, jade-ware, minority ethnic handicrafts and particularly ancient bronzes are shown in state-of-the-art displays.

Phone:

+86 21 6372 3500

Opening hours:

9am-5pm daily (last entrance 4pm).

Address:

201 Renmin Dadao, People’s Square

At the base of the Oriental Pearl Tower, this museum makes use of some extraordinary memorabilia to illustrate the city’s rich history. Stacked with historical artefacts, life-size dioramas, models, photos and paintings, the History Museum puts the spotlight on all aspects of life in post-1840s Shanghai, from the city’s famous cinema industry to its opium houses and curious forms of criminal justice.

Phone:

+86 21 5879 1888

Opening hours:

8am-9.30pm daily

Address:

Gate 4, Oriental Pearl Tower, 1 Shiji Dadao

What is arguably Shanghai’s most famous bar owes a lot to a sublime villa setting in the gardens of the 1920s Ruijin Guesthouse. On a warm summer evening there’s no finer place to be than at a table on the forecourt, beside an immaculately manicured lawn. Inside, the red-leather couches, opium beds and lounge chairs, French windows with drapes wafting in the breeze, and walls the colour of over-ripe fruit allow patrons to indulge in colonial fantasies.

Phone:

+86 21 6466 4328

Opening hours:

Noon-1.30am Mon-Thur, Sun; noon-2am Fri, Sat; happy hour 5pm-8pm

Address:

Building 4, Ruijin Guesthouse, 118 Ruijin Er Lu, by Fuxing Zhong Lu

Both bar and restaurant, New Heights offers the quintessential Shanghai experience – G&Ts at sunset overlooking the Huangpu River. There is a glass-enclosed bar area, with well-stocked bar shelves and DJ decks, but – in all but the bitterest of January freezes – the place to be is the rooftop deck. The views are pinch-me-I’m-dreaming magical. One of the world’s best spots for a drink. Seriously.

Phone:

+86 21 6321 0909

Opening hours:

10am-2am daily

Address:

7th floor, Three on the Bund, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, by Guangdong Lu

Jean-Georges is Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the Alsace-born chef lauded for his New York restaurants Vong and 66. Decorated with eel-skin sofas and pony leather armchairs, the restaurant is part Gothic Shanghai gentlemen’s club, part Manhattan Martini bar. Start with crisp foie gras brûlée, juicy scallops with a caramel caper and raisin sauce, or divine red snapper sashimi with fresh wasabi and rose gêlée. Exquisite mains include lobster infused in lemongrass and fenugreek broth.

Phone:

+86 21 6321 7733

Opening hours:

11.30am-2.30pm, 6pm-11pm daily

Address:

4th floor, Three on the Bund, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, by Guangdong Lu

Packed day and night, Bao Luo is brash, loud, smoky Shanghai dining at its best. A cavernous dining hall and a grand staircase lead to a warren of tiny rooms above. This landmark restaurant can be intimidating if you don’t speak Chinese – the English-language descriptions in the manual-thick menu are no help – but we can recommend the braised pork hoof Shanghai style, and the stir-fried vegetables and mushrooms ‘for monks’.

Phone:

+86 21 5403 7239

Opening hours:

11am-6am daily

Address:

271 Fumin Lu, by Changle Lu

 

   

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Source: Expedia