Shanghai, without the guesswork
A practical English guide for foreigners visiting Shanghai, moving here, or trying to order lunch without pointing — written by people who actually live here.
19 guides · Custom itineraries & Mandarin walks · Replies within 24 hours
Start where you are
Shanghai treats a three-day visitor and a three-year resident very differently. Pick the one that sounds like you.
Just visiting
Three to seven days, probably your first time in China. What is actually worth your time, how to pay for things, and how to move around without a tour bus.
Read the travel guides →Just moved here
Your first ninety days: phone plan, payment apps, apartment hunting, groceries, and the small things nobody tells you before you land.
Set yourself up →Want to speak a little Chinese
Twenty sentences that cover a market, a noodle shop and a taxi — and where to practise them without sitting in a classroom.
Start with the basics →How we can help
Two things we do ourselves, start to finish. Everything else on this site is free to read.
Custom Shanghai itinerary
From $120 / trip
For travellers who would rather not spend their four days in Shanghai queueing for the wrong things.
A route built around your interests, pace, and kids if you have them
Restaurant picks and reservations you cannot make yourself
A local on WhatsApp while you are actually travelling
Survival Chinese walk
From $80 / person
For people who would rather learn twenty sentences that work than a hundred that do not.
Two hours in a wet market and a noodle shop, not a classroom
You buy something, order lunch and refuse the tea seller — in Mandarin
One A5 card of your twenty sentences, plus a voice note to keep
Not sure which one you need? Send a message — the first reply is free, and we will tell you honestly if you do not need us.
You are not reading a content farm
Most English pages about Shanghai are written by someone who has never stood in a wet market at seven in the morning trying to buy pork. We have. Repeatedly, and badly, so that you do not have to.
We live here
Every guide is written in Shanghai, updated when the rules change, and dated so you know how fresh it is.
We have used the system ourselves
Alipay with a foreign card, the metro at 8am, ordering off a wall menu with no pictures. We write down what actually happened, not what the official website says.
We tell you when something is not worth it
Some famous places are a waste of an afternoon. We would rather lose a commission than send you there.
If you only read three things
The guides foreign visitors open most often, in the order they usually need them.
Payments
Is setting up Alipay really necessary for your China trip?
Short answer: yes. Longer answer: here is what breaks if you arrive without it, and how to link a foreign card in ten minutes.
Getting around
The Shanghai metro, before you ride it
Fares, transfer rules, which exits actually save you a fifteen-minute walk, and the one mistake every first-timer makes.
Living here
What is it really like living in Shanghai as a foreigner?
The honest version, including the parts that are genuinely annoying and the parts that are better than home.
Questions we get every week
Do I need a VPN in China?
Yes, if you plan to use Google, Instagram, WhatsApp or Gmail. Install it before you land, not after. Our guide explains which ones still work in 2026 and what to expect on hotel wifi.
Can I pay with my foreign credit card in Shanghai?
In hotels and malls, usually. In a noodle shop or a taxi, almost never. Alipay and WeChat Pay both accept foreign cards now, and setting them up takes about ten minutes.
How much Chinese do I actually need in Shanghai?
Less than you think to get around, more than you think to eat well. Signs and menus in malls are bilingual; a wet market and a neighbourhood noodle shop are not. About twenty sentences cover most of it — and those twenty are exactly what we teach in the two-hour walk.
Do you run tours, or just write about Shanghai?
Both, but narrowly. We plan custom itineraries, and we teach practical Mandarin in a market and a noodle shop. We do not run group tours and we do not sell anything we have not done ourselves.
Tell us what you are trying to do in Shanghai
A first trip with two kids, four free days between meetings, a move that starts next month. Describe it in a sentence and we will tell you what it takes.