If you get some down-time, go to the Huxington Tea House in the Yu Yuan Garden. This is apparently Shanghai’s oldest tea house and they perform a traditional tea ceremony every evening from 8.30pm to 10pm. Be sure to get a table on the top floor looking out over the lake. And for something livelier to do in the evening, The House of Blues and Jazz gets a good range of international acts and is an intimate venue with a music-loving crowd.

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eno is a lifestyle brand created in Shanghai. They provide a platform for Chinese artists, musicians and designers to create fresh clothing and lifestyle products. Also consumers can hand in their design and have the chance for them to be sold in the store.

Eno creates limited edition products: t-shirts, hoodies, long sleeves, bags, shoes.

Also very much worth visiting are their two monthly in store events called enoise with chinese and foreign bands performing in a relaxed atmosphere.

139-23 changle road/chengdu bei road
021-63860120

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Da>Space is China's first and only street art gallery, and it's also a stylish shop selling t-shirts and design toys. It's a new concept for China, a meeting place for young Chinese creatives and a fun place to hang out whenever the hectic city gets too much! The owners are friendly and speak Chinese and English.

84 Fujian Zhong Road (at the cross road of Guangdong Road) on the 2nd floor (look up!);
www.da-space.com

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One of the great pleasures of living in Shanghai and China generally is tea. From an early age living in England tea was a staple. I first started buying oolong (tie guan ying), green and pu er teas from a shop on Nanjing Road. Later when I went back the lady that had worked there had opened her own shop. She had been so patient, knowledgeable and had a very calm air about her which was so pleasant in the hectic bustle of Shanghai it was only natural to go to her new tea shop on my return. Wan Ling, or Candy as she is also known, is willing to spend as long as you wish chatting about tea, letting you try a number of the types she has in the shop and providing a great insight into the fascinating world of Chinese tea. Her shop is slightly hidden in a Chinese antiques market, which is in fact a great benefit once you find it. The market offers a great place to explore for an hour or two depending on your interest (porcelain, jade, stones, carvings). This is an especially good place during some of the dark and damp days we get here in Shanghai.

Located fairly centrally, Wan Ling's Tea House is fairly easy to find - located on Beijing road at the corner of Wang Hang Du Road (Lu) it is in walking distance from Jing An Temple (Nanjing raod). Her website has a map and also exact location written in both english and Chinese (great for the taxi driver).
www.wanlingteahouse.com

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When the noise, grime and mayhem that otherwise characterises Shanghai gets you down, head for this flower market. It's a refreshing change to wander around the aisles of this huge indoor bazaar that still retains a whiff of old-school charm about it, not to mention the scent of a multitude of exotic blooms shipped in from who knows where. And at festival periods, even Christmas, the upper floor is reborn as an all-singing all-dancing plastic tat wholesaler - just what you need for those last-minute decorations...

225 South Shanxi Rd, near Yongjia Rd. Look for the trail of floral debris and turn into the car park. Nearest metro - Shanxi Nan Lu (Line 1)

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A world class venue designed to resemble a traditional pagoda, it's one of the few modern buildings in the brash city centre to have been built in anything like the vernacular. The theatre hosts international performers and performances from classical orchestras to Shakespeare companies to The Sound of Music. Shanghai's culture vultures are a keen lot: you'll even find touts trying to fob off ballet tickets.

People's Square - People's Square Station Metro Line 1 and 2 www.shgtheatre.com/images_e/mainindex_e.asp

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Not a particularly welcoming place, but a real sign of the times. It's worth spending a few minutes here marvelling at the new Chinese diaspora as poor farmers from the countryside arrive, often clutching all their worldly possesions in white hessian bags. Who knows what riches or despair they will find?

Ask for Shanghai Houche Zhan, or take the Metro (Lines 1 and 3)

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Every major city has one: Chinatown in London and New York; Le Quartier Chinois in Paris; Berlin is actually building one. So it may surprise you to learn that even cities in China have Chinatowns too. In Shanghai it’s the Yu Yuan area, a sealed-off district where development is not quite as rampant as elsewhere and the atmosphere of old China still pervades. At its centre is the famed Yu Yuan teahouse and classical gardens, plus the temple of the city god. Yu Yuan is pretty commercial these days – most of the area’s business is in selling tourist tat, but it’s still the place to go for Chinese arts and crafts.

A bit tricky to get to by Metro. Your best bet is a taxi.

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The word on the street is that Mao Ming Lu will soon be closing: ex-president Jiang Zemin wants to settle down nearby for his retirement and doesn’t want a noisy bar scene on his doorstep. Nevertheless, it is still the epicentre of Shanghai’s nightlife. More alive than Heng Shan Lu and more natural than the recently-built substitute Tongren Lu, there’s something here for just about everyone. Windows Bar gets jammed full of dancers after midnight: The Blue Frog has a fine ambience: Judy’s is a meat market with a lethal all-you-can-drink happy hour. It's often dead but when it gets going Mao Ming Lu is a taste of the decadent party spirit that never quite escaped from Shanghai.

Mao Ming Lu, of course; the bars are at the south end near Yongjia Lu. Nearest Metro is Shanxi Nan Lu (Metro Line 1)

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Brass dragons, Mah Jong sets, wood carvings, posters from the cultural revolution: a lot of the ‘antiques’ in this open-air market that lines Dong Tai Lu admittedly look the same. As if they’re mass produced, perhaps. On the other hand, this is a good place to find some real bargains and some interesting Chinese wares for gifts and souvenirs. Haggle hard and watch out for the dross and the obvious factory fakes, and you’ll have an interesting afternoon regardless of whether you take anything home.

Dong Tai Lu, near Xintiandi. Huangpi Nan Lu station (Metro Line 1)

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There's quite a few international restuarants in Shanghai, but for a more authentic experience head for the nearest backstreet and sit yourself down somewhere that looks busyish. Most places won't have an English menu (though eateries near business areas and universities often do) so make sure you have your phrasebook handy. Then get chomping on those chicken feet and beef tendons. Yummy!

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At the heart of People's Square, this is possibly the best museum of Chinese artifacts anywhere in the world. There's several floors consisting of rows and rows of coins, brass, ceramics and paintings: comprehensive, if a little dry. The building itself is an architectual wonder too - designed in the shape of a traditional Chinese urn with the symbolism of circle and square.

People's Square Metro Station (Line 1 and 2). www.shanghaimuseum.net/en/index.asp

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