Access Shanghai上海 · Shanghai

Landmarks & Sights

景点 · JǏNGDIǍN

Sixteen Shanghai sights, one page each, free ones first — eleven cost nothing, though several of those still need booking.

The Lujiazui financial district seen from above, with the river beyond
Photograph by Bechology, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Sixteen places, one page each, ordered the way this site argues the city works: the 11 that cost nothing to enter first, the 5 you buy a ticket for after. That order is an argument, not a filing convention.

The Pudong skyline seen across the Huangpu river from the Bund promenadeThe Bund⭐ Free · never closesA wide panorama of the Pudong skyline from across the waterLujiazui & the Pudong SkylineFree to walk · decks ticketedHengshan Road under a full canopy of plane trees, with a cyclist passingThe Former French Concession⭐ Free · the best walking in ShanghaiConverted shikumen houses at Xintiandi with shopfronts in the old brick facadesXintiandi⭐ Free · restored shikumenThe round bronze-vessel form of the Shanghai Museum above its stepsShanghai Museum⭐ Free · book aheadThe pedestrian stretch of East Nanjing Road packed with peopleNanjing Road⭐ Free · the shopping streetPeople's Park and its lawns with the towers of the centre behindPeople's Square & People's Park⭐ Free · the centre of the cityA narrow Tianzifang alley by day, with parasols and shopfrontsTianzifang⭐ Free · the unrestored versionThe steel Garden Bridge over Suzhou Creek with Broadway Mansions behindSuzhou Creek & the Garden Bridge⭐ Free · the other waterfrontThe single tall chimney of the former Nanshi power plant against a blue skyPower Station of Art⭐ Free · a converted power plantThe inverted red timber-bracket form of the China Art Museum under a clear skyChina Art Museum⭐ Free · the red Expo pavilionThe tiered tea house standing on its own island in the Yu Garden pondYu GardenGarden ticketed · bazaar freeThe gilded roofs of Jing'an Temple directly beneath the office towers around itJing'an TempleTicketed · gold against glassThe main hall of Longhua Temple with trees and a clear sky behindLonghua Temple & PagodaTicketed · the oldest in the cityThe yellow outer wall of the Jade Buddha Temple hung with red lanternsJade Buddha TempleTicketed · extra for the jade hallA residential lane with laundry strung overhead and bicycles against the wallsShikumen & the Lane Houses⭐ Free to walk · people live here

Photographs above, in order, from Wikimedia Commons: Ermell (CC0) · Balon Greyjoy (CC0) · Morgenmauer (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Can Pac Swire from Toronto, Canada (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Fumihiko Ueno (CC BY 3.0) · TheBlueRutabaga (CC BY-SA 4.0) · King of Hearts (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Jonipoon (CC BY-SA 3.0) · HLBB75 at English Wikipedia (Public domain) · Fayhoo (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Iswzo (CC BY-SA 4.0) · King of Hearts (CC BY-SA 4.0) · kallerna (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Stefan Fussan (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Iamtherealnick (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Daniel Case (CC BY-SA 3.0). Each sight page repeats its own credit beside the image.

A passenger ferry crossing the Huangpu with the Pudong towers behind it
Photograph by Ermell, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sixteen places, and eleven of them are free

That ratio is the honest summary. The Bund costs nothing and never closes. The great public squares cost nothing. The national-standard museums cost nothing. The concession streets, the lane houses and the waterfront are all simply there.

What costs money is the classical garden, the working temples, and the observation decks at the top of the towers — and the decks are the one thing on this list most likely to disappoint, because they depend entirely on the air.

A pavilion with upswept eaves reflected in the garden's water
Photograph by Stefan Fussan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

⚠️ Free does not mean walk-in

This is the Shanghai-specific catch. Several of the best free things — the Shanghai Museum, the China Art Museum, the site of the First Congress — require an advance reservation and your passport. Slots for popular days genuinely run out.

Booking is done through the venue's own channel, usually inside a payment app. See Money & Your Phone, because that is the dependency.

Lujiazui seen from the Bund, with barges working the river in front
Photograph by Stefan Fussan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Every sight here has its own page

Not a line in a list — a page, with what it costs, whether it needs booking, how to get there, what to do in an hour, and what people get wrong. The mistakes are specific and most of them are avoidable.

How the city is laid out

The Huangpu river runs north-south through the middle. Puxi, west of it, is the old city, the concessions and almost everything historic. Pudong, east of it, is the towers, and was farmland within living memory.

Almost everything on this list is in Puxi. Crossing between them takes ten minutes on the metro or five on the ferry, and doing it once by water is worth arranging.

This section is being written. The guide above is the section for now. New guides go up three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so this page grows steadily — it is worth looking in again. In the meantime the sixteen sight pages and the plans by trip length are finished, and they are the best place to start.

Coming next in this section

  • What Is Genuinely Free in Shanghai
  • The Bund at Seven in the Morning
  • Which Shanghai Observation Deck, and When Not to Bother
  • The Ferry Across the Huangpu, for the Price of a Metro Fare