Shanghai in four days: the Bund, Yu Garden, museums and Zhujiajiao

Three nights in the middle of the city

For a first visit, sleep near People’s Square or the Bund. People’s Square is on metro lines 1, 2 and 8, the Bund and Yu Garden are a short ride east, and the museum, Hongqiao and both airports connect without a change of hotel. The alternative is the former French Concession in Xuhui and Jing’an: quieter, lined with plane trees, a good fit if you plan to spend evenings around Wukang Road. Either works for three nights.

Hotels register foreign guests with the police for you. Chinese policy says hotels should not turn foreign guests away for lacking a licence, but not every property can register foreigners, so confirm with the hotel before you book. If you stay somewhere that is not a hotel, you or your host must register within 24 hours of arrival; online registration has been available nationwide since 21 September 2026 and counts the same as registering in person.

Nanjing Road, the Bund, the river and Yu Garden

On the first evening, walk from People’s Square to the river along Nanjing Road East, a pedestrian shopping street where Lao Xiang Zhai, at No. 720, sells butterfly crackers (hudie su), Shanghai’s buttery take on the palmier. It ends at the Bund, so you reach the water as the lights come on, and it is an easy first outing after a long flight.

The Bund was the financial centre of old Shanghai and is still known as China’s Wall Street. Its riverfront buildings mix Baroque, Gothic and Ancient Greek styles, so the whole row reads like an exhibition of world architecture; four bridges cross Suzhou Creek here, and three of them, Waibaidu Bridge (the Garden Bridge) among them, are listed as excellent historical buildings. The promenade is a public walk, so go for the view of Pudong across the river and stay after dark, when the façades are lit.

Finish the first evening on the water. The Huangpu River cruise leaves from Shiliupu Wharf on the Bund (ticket office at B1, 491 East Zhongshan Road No. 2) and runs downriver towards the Yangpu Bridge and back, about 50 minutes in all, with Waibaidu Bridge and the lit façades of the Bund on one side and the Oriental Pearl, Jin Mao, the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Shanghai Tower on the other. When we checked on 26 October 2026, the city government’s boat guide listed the night sailing at CNY 150 a person from 26 February to 25 November and CNY 120 from 26 November to 25 February (day sailings CNY 120 and CNY 100), with CNY 150 on public holidays. Children under 1.3 metres go free, and children from 1.3 to 1.5 metres and visitors aged 70 or over pay half.

Start the next morning at Yu Garden, a short walk or ride inland from the Bund; metro lines 10 and 14 stop at Yuyuan Garden station. Pan Yunduan, a Ming official, began it in 1559 as a private garden for his elderly father and spent more than 20 years building it; badly damaged in the 19th century, it was restored from 1956 and reopened in 1961. Its halls, ponds and rockeries show the Jiangnan garden style of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Great Rockery, a 14-metre hill of piled stone with peaks, cliffs and winding steps, was laid out by the Ming rock-builder Zhang Nanyang. The Exquisite Jade Rock, a slender, wrinkled stone pierced with holes, is the garden’s prize: it is said to come from the Song emperor Huizong’s palace garden about 1,000 years ago and counts as one of the three great rocks of the Jiangnan region. In the Inner Garden, a garden within the garden laid out in 1709, the gilded opera stage has a domed ceiling of 22 carved rings set with 28 golden birds.

As checked on 26 October 2026, the garden is open 09:00 to 16:30, with the last entry at 16:00, and closed on Mondays except national statutory holidays; Spring Festival hours follow a separate notice. The adult ticket is CNY 40 from 1 April to 30 June and 1 September to 30 November, and CNY 30 from 1 July to 31 August and 1 December to 31 March. Visitors older than 6 up to and including 18, full-time undergraduates and other qualifying students, and visitors aged 60 or over pay half with valid ID or student documents. Children aged 6 or under, or up to 1.3 metres tall, enter free with an adult; one adult may accompany up to three children. Buy at the windows of the north gate (168 Fuyou Road) or the south gate (279 Yuyuan Old Street, at the foot of the zigzag bridge, individuals only), or in the garden’s own mini-programme. Allow one to two hours; the bazaar of teahouses and shops outside the gates is free to walk.

Xintiandi, Tianzifang and Pudong

From Yu Garden, head west into the lanes of the former French Concession. One of the city’s own walking routes runs about 3.6 kilometres from Madang Road along Middle Huaihai Road, Sinan Road and Middle Jianguo Road to Taikang Road, linking Xintiandi and Tianzifang. Xintiandi, completed in 2001, restored a block of shikumen, Shanghai’s stone-gated lane houses, and filled it with restaurants, shops and cultural venues. Tianzifang keeps its shikumen alleys, now a maze of small craft shops, with a visitor service centre at 200 Taikang Road.

End day 2 in Pudong, across the river. The ferry fares and hours checked on 26 October 2026 make it the cheapest crossing: the Dongfu Line runs from Fuxing Road Ferry Pier, at 1 East Fuxing Road, to Dongchang Road on the Pudong bank from 07:00 to 21:00 for CNY 2. From the pier, walk along Binjiang Avenue, the riverside road of the Pudong bank, towards the towers of Lujiazui. Its cafés and terraces look straight across at the Bund, the reverse of the previous evening’s view, with the stone banks and the Custom House clock tower lit after dark. The walk costs nothing.

Then choose one tower. The Shanghai Tower, the tallest building in China, has its Top of Shanghai observatory on the 118th floor, 546 metres up; from there the Oriental Pearl and the Bund lie far below and the Huangpu curves away through the city. Tickets are real-name, so take your passport, and the ticket office is at 501 Middle Yincheng Road. Expect about CNY 180 an adult, a historical comparison from the city government’s November 2024 listing. The Oriental Pearl Tower, the pink-sphered landmark by the river, is the alternative, but it is the one tower you want in your photographs, and it is just as striking from the Lujiazui streets for nothing.

Zhujiajiao and Wukang Road

Zhujiajiao is a canal town in Qingpu, in the south-west of Shanghai, with Ming and Qing streets, stone bridges and tea houses along its waterways. The old town is free to enter. The most photographed sight is Fangsheng Bridge, which the town’s operator calls the largest five-arch stone bridge in the Jiangnan region; North Street, a lane of old shops often only two to four metres wide, is the place to wander. The operator’s visitor information, checked on 26 October 2026, lists three sights with admission charges: Kezhi Garden (CNY 20), a manor garden built in 1912, Hexin Garden (CNY 30), whose pavilion was moved here from the upper Yangtze when the Three Gorges project flooded its site, and the Helong Art Museum (CNY 20), which shows Shanghai-school painting. The three together cost CNY 60, are open 08:30 to 17:00 daily, and tickets are one person, one ticket, bought at the visitor centre, the service stations or each sight.

Take metro line 17 from Hongqiao Railway Station to Zhujiajiao for CNY 6; the town lists trains about every 10 minutes, from 06:00 to 23:00 outbound and 05:43 to 22:33 on the way back, and the town is about 30 kilometres from the station. From the metro station, bus 1510 to the visitor centre costs CNY 1 and runs every 15 to 30 minutes, and a scenic boat to Fangsheng Bridge costs CNY 40 between 09:00 and 16:20. A direct bus from Pu’an Road, off Yan’an East Road, costs CNY 12 and runs hourly. Start by 09:30 and you can see the town at an easy pace and be back in the city by late afternoon.

Back in the city, end day 3 on Wukang Road in Xuhui, at its best in the late afternoon and evening. Wukang Mansion, designed by László Hudec and completed in 1924, rises like the bow of a ship where Wukang Road meets Middle Huaihai Road and draws about 40,000 visitors a day; the same block holds Soong Ching Ling’s former residence and Ba Jin’s former residence. It is a neighbourhood walk of cafés, boutiques and plane trees rather than a ticketed sight, and the houses are private homes, so photograph them from the street. If you have an hour to spare, Fuxing Park, with its formal flowerbeds, and Jing’an Temple, a gold-roofed temple among office towers, are a short ride away.

Shanghai Museum East and People’s Square

The Shanghai Museum’s permanent collections are now at its East building at 1952 Century Avenue in Pudong, opened in 2024, and it is the better museum day: bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy in a building whose curving walkways are worth a look in themselves. The museum opens from 10:00 to 18:00, with last entry at 17:00, and closes on Tuesdays except national public holidays (hours checked on 26 October 2026). Since 15 September 2024 individuals can walk in without a reservation, showing a valid original ID (a passport for visitors from abroad) at the B1-level east gate on the Dingxiang Road side. The Ancient Civilizations Exploration Palace and the Digital Gallery still need a reservation through the museum’s mini-programme, entry is limited when the building is full, and the museum charges only for special exhibitions it marks as paid.

Until 14 November 2027 the museum’s original building on People’s Square shows only the paid exhibition World Tree: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas, not the permanent collection, so treat it as an optional swap for the East building rather than an addition. Reserve and buy the ticket in the museum’s mini-programme or, from abroad, on Trip.com, where the price is shown; the building is open 09:00 to 17:00 (last entry 15:00) and closed on Mondays except national public holidays, and you enter with your original ID at the south gate on Wusheng Road.

Four days in order

Yu Garden closes on Mondays and Shanghai Museum East on Tuesdays, so check the weekdays of your stay against the plan below. If day 2 falls on a Monday, swap days 2 and 3 so Yu Garden is open; if your last day is a Tuesday, see the museum on day 2 while you are in Pudong and walk Xintiandi and Tianzifang on day 4 instead. Nanjing Road, the Bund, Zhujiajiao and the French Concession streets are open every day. For a longer step out of the city, see our Hangzhou and Suzhou guide.

• Day 1: Nanjing Road East, the Bund and the river cruise. Arrive and check in, walk from People’s Square to the Bund for the river at dusk, then take the night cruise from Shiliupu Wharf.
• Day 2: Yu Garden, Xintiandi, Tianzifang and Pudong. Yu Garden when it opens at 09:00, the lane walk from Madang Road to Taikang Road, then the Dongfu Line ferry to Pudong, the Binjiang Avenue riverside at dusk and the Shanghai Tower observatory after dark.
• Day 3: Zhujiajiao and Wukang Road. Metro line 17 from Hongqiao Railway Station, the three paid sights and the canals, then Wukang Road in the evening.
• Day 4: Shanghai Museum East and departure. Visit when it opens at 10:00 only with an afternoon or evening flight that leaves enough time for the airport journey and your airline’s check-in deadline. For a morning flight, move the museum to day 2 and leave the final morning for departure.

Airports and getting around

Airport connections below were checked on 26 October 2026. Pudong (PVG) is about 30 kilometres from downtown and handles international and domestic flights. Metro line 2 from Pudong Terminal 1&2 station reaches People’s Square in about an hour for about CNY 7, and a taxi to People’s Square costs around CNY 180 a vehicle and takes about 50 minutes; taxis leave from outside Arrival Gate 12 at Terminal 1 and Arrival Gate 25 at Terminal 2. The maglev runs between the airport and Longyang Road at up to 300 km/h, from 07:02 to 21:42 out of the airport and 06:45 to 21:40 towards it; at Longyang Road you change to metro line 2. Hongqiao (SHA) is 13 kilometres from the centre and mainly serves domestic and regional flights; a taxi takes about 30 minutes and costs CNY 100 to 150 a vehicle, depending on traffic, and Terminal 1 is on metro line 10, Terminal 2 on lines 10 and 2. The Airport Link Line takes about 40 minutes between the two airports. Our transport guide covers the long-distance stations.

Within the city, metro and walking link every sight above. Metro fares checked on 26 October 2026 go by distance, CNY 3 for up to 6 kilometres and CNY 1 for each further 10 kilometres; you can tap an eligible contactless Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB or UnionPay card at the gates if small-transaction password-free payment is enabled, or buy a single ticket from the machines. Set up Weixin Pay (also called WeChat Pay) or Alipay and save addresses in Chinese before you leave; our payments and apps guide explains how. German advice is to refrain from using VPN services; plan on limited access to some overseas apps and keep offline maps and notes.

What four days in Shanghai cost

These figures are for two adults sharing one private double for three nights in an ordinary week outside the national holidays, with prices checked on 25 October 2026. It covers rooms, three meals and drinks a day, the airport links and local rides, the paid sights and the day-1 night cruise listed below, two SIMs and a 10% buffer. Room figures are full-double estimates based on late-November rate cards of international hotel chains, including estimated taxes and service charges; a hotel’s own two-adult price and terms for your dates will differ. This is a stand-alone Shanghai stay, separate from the route totals in our China trip cost guide.

A London return to Shanghai costs about GBP 650 to 850 a person (GBP 1,300 to 1,700 for two), an estimate based on Etihad’s displayed return economy fares from GBP 563, read on 26 October 2026. With it the four days come to about GBP 1,030 to 1,230 a person at mid-range (GBP 2,070 to 2,470 for two), GBP 890 to 1,090 at budget and GBP 1,300 to 1,500 at comfort, converted at the official central parity rate of 23 October 2026 (GBP 1 = CNY 8.9749). Your bank or card will give a different rate.

• Rooms, about CNY 3,000 for two at mid-range. Three nights at about CNY 1,000 (budget CNY 600, comfort CNY 1,700); these are full double-room estimates for two including estimated taxes and service charges; the food line covers every meal.
• Food, about CNY 1,440 for two. About CNY 180 a person a day on average: CNY 30 for breakfast, 60 for lunch, 70 for dinner and 20 for water and snacks (budget CNY 800 for two, comfort CNY 2,800). The xiaolongbao breakfast at Nanxiang (about CNY 93 a person) and the Lyceum dinner (about CNY 92 a person) cost more than that; the scallion oil noodle lunch on Sinan Road (CNY 25) and a shengjian supper by the Bund (CNY 11 for four buns) cost less.
• Getting around, about CNY 680 for two. Airport taxis at about CNY 180 a vehicle, one vehicle each way, CNY 360 for both journeys; about CNY 270 of metro, ferry and taxi rides in the city, CNY 28 for the Zhujiajiao metro and bus returns and about CNY 20 for line 2 between People’s Square and Hongqiao Railway Station and back, at about CNY 5 a ride on the distance fare. At budget level the airport metro and metro day passes bring this to about CNY 220 for two. Comfort is about CNY 1,500 for two: the same airport taxis, about CNY 340 of city taxis and a car and driver for the Zhujiajiao day at about CNY 800 a vehicle, an estimate for a full day with the driver waiting, not a quoted fare.
• Sights, about CNY 860 for two. Each person pays about CNY 430: Yu Garden CNY 40, the Shanghai Tower observatory about CNY 180, the three Zhujiajiao sights CNY 60 and the day-1 night cruise CNY 150. Shanghai Museum East is free when no paid special exhibition is chosen. The budget uses the CNY 40 garden season and CNY 150 cruise season; the seasonal prices above can lower your actual bill.
• SIM and extras, about CNY 300 for two. About CNY 150 a person is an estimate based on China Telecom’s published 15-day visitor card at CNY 125 (30 GB, on sale until 30 November 2026). The tariff does not guarantee airport stock or the same offer in Shanghai; take your passport.
• Buffer, about CNY 630. Ten per cent of the subtotal of CNY 6,280.