Dedicated to the modernist author Lu Xun, this park is one of Shanghai’s best and boasts a boating lake and a landscaped garden. It also houses Lu Xun’s tomb and a museum that considers his works. Elderly people gather here to exercise, sing, gossip and cause havoc much as teenagers do in the West. European visitors may hold their noses up at the artifice and the keep-off-the-grass attitude, but it’s one of the few large open spaces normal people have access too.

Walk from Hongkou Stadium Metro Station (Line 3)

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

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)

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

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.

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends

Set at the very centre of the city, this is the place to come and people-watch. Canoodling couples, exercising elders and gawping tourists everywhere, watched over by the resident flock of strangely pristine white doves.

People's Square Metro (Lines 1 and 2)

I agreeI disagree

1.  
2. Send to friends