Markets & Shopping

The famous street, and the ones people actually use

Nanjing Road is the one everybody has heard of — pedestrianised, floodlit, and aimed squarely at domestic visitors. Walk it once for the scale and the 1930s buildings above the shopfronts, then go somewhere else to buy anything.

Huaihai Road is the equivalent through the former French Concession and is where Shanghai shops. Tianzifang and the lanes off it are small studios and craft. The South Bund Fabric Market is where clothes are made to measure in a few days, which is a genuine Shanghai thing to do.

⚠️ Two approaches to know about

On Nanjing Road and around the Bund, two long-running approaches target visitors:

• An invitation to a traditional tea ceremony from a friendly English-speaker.
• An invitation to a nearby art student's exhibition.

Both are real venues; both end with a bill several times what you expected. They are not dangerous and there is no confrontation — you simply pay a lot for tea or a scroll. The answer is to decline and keep walking.

Haggling, and where it applies

⛔ Not in shops, not in department stores, not for food. ⭐ Yes in tourist markets and at the fabric market, where the first number is an opening position and the expected discount is substantial. Be good-humoured; walking away is a normal part of it and is often when the real price appears.

What is actually worth buying

Tailoring at the fabric market. Tea, from a proper tea shop rather than a ceremony. Silk. Chops — carved stone name seals. ⚠️ And be realistic about counterfeits: they are widely available, they are illegal to import into most countries, and customs at your end does enforce it.