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Shanghai, Day Zero

A First-Timer's Guide to the Walls You'll Actually Hit

By Kevin Gu

A first-timer's guide to Shanghai, built around the walls visitors actually hit: two airports and a maglev to choose between, a city that runs on phone payments, apps you can't reach from home, the handful of sights that must be booked ahead, a river that splits the city in two, and menus you scan rather than read.

Each chapter explains what stands in the way and how to get past it, then tells the story behind the Bund, the Old City and the lane houses, along with the new riverside walks and museums most guides miss, Disney, and day trips to the water towns and the Yangtze Delta, with the facts checked for travel in 2026 and 2027.

This edition is written for readers from the United States and Canada, with their entry rules, embassy contacts and customs allowances.

Coming soon to ebook stores

Contents

I — Before the Wheels Touch Down

  1. Getting There for Less: Flights, Pudong or Hongqiao, and the Free Stopover
  2. The Paperwork Wall: Visa-Free, Transit, and the Airport Run
  3. The Cashless Wall: Three Ways to Pay, and Where Each One Stops Working
  4. The Connectivity Wall: eSIM, VPN, Maps, and the Apps You Need Installed Before Boarding

II — The First 48 Hours

  1. The Booking Wall, Lowered: Which Shanghai Sights Actually Need a Reservation
  2. The Transit Wall: Subway Lines, River Ferries, Taxis and Bikes
  3. Choosing a Bed by Subway Line: Puxi or Pudong

III — The Sights: The Story First, Then the Strategy

  1. The Bund and Lujiazui: Two Skylines, One River
  2. The Old City: Yu Garden, City God Temple and the Lanes Around Them
  3. Plane Trees and Lane Houses: The Former French Concession and Shikumen Shanghai
  4. Riverside Shanghai: Walks Along the Huangpu and Suzhou Creek
  5. Temples, Churches and the Jewish Quarter
  6. Museums as Answers: One Room for Each Question a First-Timer Asks

IV — Eating Without Fear

  1. The Menu Wall: Scan-to-Order, Queue Apps, and How to Eat a Soup Dumpling
  2. Beyond the Soup Dumpling: Benbang, Breakfast and the Rest of China on One Plate
  3. Coffee, Cocktails and Jazz: Where to Sit Down When You're Done Walking

V — The Chapters No One Else Wrote

  1. Plum Rain, Typhoons and 38°C: Planning Around Shanghai's Weather
  2. Shanghai Disney Resort and Legoland: Tickets, Heights and the Day Plan
  3. Shanghai With Kids, With Parents, With Wheels: Sight-by-Sight Accessibility
  4. The Other Shanghai: Where the City Actually Lives Now
  5. High-Speed Rail Day Trips: Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing and the Rest of the Delta
  6. Water Towns Without the Crowds: Zhujiajiao, Wuzhen, Xitang, Zhouzhuang, Tongli, Nanxun

VI — Leaving Well

  1. Shopping That Isn't a Trap: Markets, Tailors, Tea and the Fake-Goods Question
  2. Sample Routes by Subway Line: 3, 4 and 6 Days Without Backtracking

Appendices

  1. Phrasebook by Situation, Not by Grammar
  2. Shanghai in Brief: History and Building Words
  3. Practical A–Z
  4. Place Names in Characters and Pinyin

About the Author

Kevin Gu was born in 1977 in Anqing, in China's Anhui province, where he grew up, and has since worked in Chengdu, Fuzhou, Suzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai. He now lives in Jiaxing, in Zhejiang province.

He is a shareware developer and a freelance writer. This book grew out of a local's knowledge and experience of the country, and was written with the help of online information and AI tools, which were also used to translate it into its other editions.