The day
Shanghai is at its best when you let the day build towards the lights. Start at midday in the Ming-dynasty calm of Yu Garden and the buzzing bazaar around it, cross into the French Concession’s plane-tree lanes, and browse the shikumen alleys of Tianzifang.
Then the finale: dinner, a walk onto the Bund as a million LEDs come on across the river, and a Huangpu night cruise sailing straight through the canyon of light between the colonial waterfront and the Pudong supertowers.
Good to know
Hour by hour
Free morning, then straight into the old city.
Xiaolongbao where the pleating is still done by hand — the queue is part of the theatre.
Rockeries, koi ponds and dragon-topped walls — a Ming merchant’s garden hidden in the old town.
Wukang Road and Ferguson Lane: plane trees, art-deco villas, third-wave coffee.
Shikumen lane houses turned studios, galleries and craft shops — best browsed slowly.
Shanghainese classics — drunken chicken, red-braised pork — at a spot we book ahead.
Walk the waterfront as the full skyline show hits its stride.
Sail between two centuries: gaslight-era banks to port, the Shanghai Tower’s light ribbons to starboard.
Back by 22:00 with the skyline burned into your camera roll.
This is a private trip — every timing above flexes to your pace, your appetite and your energy.
The fine print
Keep exploring
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