Taikang Lu is located near the central shopping street of Huaihai Xi Lu. It's one of the few remaining hutongs in the city. It offers an authentic Chinese feel, whilst resembling parts of Mediterranean Europe. Locals hang out their washing and go about their daily lives whilst you can visit boutiques and enjoy a range of international foods, including excellent Chinese cuisine.

Taikang Lu

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It gives you an overview of all the places you can visit, where you can eat and drink as well as info on daily Shanghai life.

shanghai.mychinastart.com/

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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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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 designs 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 instore events called enoise with Chinese and foreign bands performing in a relaxed atmosphere.

139-23 changle road/chengdu bei road
021-63860120
www.eno.cn

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Shopping is THE favourite pastime in Shanghai. Vervia does a very good job at combining a lifestyle design shop with a cosy coffee lounge, making you feel just like at home while discovering that designed gem.

Shop 46, Lane 248 (enter from Lane 210), Taikang Road near Sinan Road www.vervia-house.com

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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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Quite probably not-quite-legal, but everyone seems to know about it and it has the best selection of DVDs in the city. It hasn’t been shut down yet, that’s for sure, and this isn't the only Internet discussion board it appears on. With such a wide choice of films, you pay a premium of 2RMB on top of the usual going rate of 8RMB. At 10RMB that’s still under 70p per movie and, trust me, there won't be anything better to watch on TV.

158 Jin Xian Lu, near Shanxi Nan Lu Metro station (Line 1). Find the sign hanging outside on the street, push the big wooden doors and walk straight through the little cafe at the front.

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One of Shanghai's many shopping streets, Nanjing Lu is the one where everyone heads first. It caters for a mainly Chinese clientele rather than tourists or expats, and so is a good place to watch the Shanghainese at play. There's also an open-area stage for live music and promotions. Watch out, though: despite this being a pedestrian area, don't get run over by the toy-town trains that chug up and down the street.

Metro Line 2 travels along the length of the street: best stops to use are Henan Zhong Lu and People's Square.

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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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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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A converted patch of the old French Concession area full of swanky restaurants and bars, Xintiandi could almost be a corner of a cosmopolitan city tucked into the centre of Asia's hottest boomtown. It's expensive. Very expensive. But there's no better place to experience the cafe culture that was swinging hardest during Shanghai's golden age back in the 30s.

Get off at Huang Pi Nan Lu (Metro Line 1) and follow the Gucci.

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