Issue #25 January: A Family Reunion in Shanghai, China 🇨🇳

Highlights from my trip to Shanghai and how it has ruined Chinese food for me back home.

Arriving in Shanghai is like stepping into the future. The bustling city of 30 million people is China’s biggest and most modern. My entire extended family is there and my mom and I were overdue for a visit. She left first in mid-December and I joined her later during my holiday break. I was there for 10 days and while most of the trip was spent doing family things, I did have a short-list of some fun activities I wanted to experience. This guide is by no means comprehensive, but it’s a start to navigating this unforgettable city. ✨

Eat and Drink 😋 

Coming from SF, I’m always shocked at how affordable dining out is in other cities, but in China, the affordability and variety is just mindblowing. Delicious meals can cost just a few US dollars. The exception to this is Western restaurants where the costs are similar to what you’d pay back home (minus the tip). Because of this discrepancy, most locals will dine in Chinese restaurants and save the Western ones for special occasions. For example, you can get a coffee from Luckin for 9 RMB ($1.30), but one at the Starbucks Roastery will run you 55 RMB ($7.90) so it’s not surprising Luckin is China’s largest coffee chain. The other shocker is that you can bring in outside food or get it delivered to any restaurant and no one cares. It was wild for me to see people getting milk teas delivered to them while eating hot pot. When I asked my family about this, they just shrugged and said, “We love our milk teas.” Another note is that ice or cold water isn’t a thing. Chinese people only drink hot water (maybe room temp), but you are free to bring your own. 

🥞

• Breakfast: My favorite thing about Chinese food culture is the attention to breakfast. It’s truly unmatched. Step out into any neighborhood at 6am and you will find vendors offering every type of freshly made breakfast delight you can imagine: baos, soymilk, noodles, porridge, pancakes, crepes, dumplings, and more. My go-to was a bowl of pumpkin millet porridge with a black sesame fried donut and a chive pancake–all for less than $2.

☕🍵

• Luckin (multiple locations): As mentioned above, this is China’s largest coffee chain that actually just opened locations in NYC last year. Once I figured out how to order on WeChat, I tried a different coffee everyday. My favorites were the coconut latte and jasmine tea latte. To-go only. 
• Starbucks Reserve Roastery (Nanjing Road): Beautiful 30,000 square foot space to enjoy coffee and pastries while watching the roasting process in action. Their Shanghai microblend makes a great gift. 
• Matcha Wang (Huaihai Road): Viral matcha spot worth the hype. The sheep matcha is indeed adorable and delicious. It’s located on the ground level of the shopping complex Hai550.

• HeyTea (multiple locations): While there are a few US locations, this is still a hotspot for local tea lovers. They’re known for their cheese drinks, but I like their fruit teas.  
• Hanchun Chasi (Yu Garden): A modern take on medicinal teas, this shop features fruit and milk teas with healing ingredients like snow pear.  
• Cathay Room at the Fairmont Peace Hotel (Bund): Enjoy a luxurious afternoon tea with stunning views of the Bund.

🥟

• Yang’s Fried Dumpling (People’s Square): Popular spot that specializes in pan fried soup dumplings, but I actually preferred their other dishes like the wontons and tofu vermicelli soup. 
• Ningbao Tangyuan Shop (Yu Garden): A must-try when visiting Yu Garden for their famous tangyuan (glutinous rice ball) that comes in both savory and sweet options. The pork tangyuan is my mom’s favorite. 
• Jia Jia Tang Bao (multiple locations): Old school soup dumpling shop that’s been serving up xiao long baos since the 1980s. They make up to 10,000 dumplings by hand in a single day. The truffle XLB is sheer perfection, packed with black truffles and juicy pork in delicate thin wrappers.

🦀

• Cheng Long Hang (Huangpu): This Michelin-star restaurant honors the hairy crab, a Shanghainese delicacy known for its creamy roe and succulent crabmeat. The restaurant’s signature dish features de-shelled crab meat and roe on top of a silky steamed egg custard. 

🍲

• Haidilao Hot Pot (multiple locations): China is filled with hotpot restaurants so when I told my family I wanted to go to Haidilao, they were confused why I would pick such a basic place with outposts in the US. But I had never been and the experience was not basic at all–it was extraordinary! There was a meat wheel, a huge sauce buffet, a noodle dance, and–I kid you not–free manicures while you wait. Yes, I got a manicure from a hot pot restaurant. 

Shop 🛍️

While China is well known for their manufacturing expertise, it’s only in more recent years that Chinese designers and brands have become more mainstream and with that, many cool shops have popped up in Shanghai. 

• PopMart (Nanjing Road): The mecca for any Labubu lover.
• Songmont (multiple locations): Shanghai handbag brand known for their well-crafted bags and reasonable price points. The brand gained international popularity after celebrities like Alexa Chung and Kelly Rutherford were seen carrying their bags. The flagship store on Huaihai Road has a constant line.
• Haus Nowhere (Huaihai Road): Right across the street from the Songmont flagship is this concept store and immersive art space by Korean eyeglass brand, Gentle Monster. It’s a feast for the eyes and the camera.

• Hai550 (Huaihai Road): Multi-story retail and gallery space, featuring local designers and brands with a focus on sustainability. You can find clothing, jewelry, fragrance, home decor, and of course, Matcha Wang on the first floor.
• White Rabbit (multiple locations): Probably the most famous Chinese candy, White Rabbit was created in Shanghai. Their stores carry fun flavors like mango and coconut. Makes a great souvenir. 
• Shang Xia (Huaihai Road): Chinese lifestyle brand co-founded by Hermès and rooted in traditional Chinese craftsmanship. Walking around the boutique, it definitely felt as luxurious as Hermès, but everything from the handwoven basket handbags to the porcelain tea sets to the eggshell lacquer furniture is distinctly Chinese.

See 🖼️

• Louis Vuitton Ship: A massive 3-story 17,000 square feet ship in the middle of Shanghai's busiest street. It houses an exhibition space that’s free with reservations as well as a fancy cafe on the top floor. The exhibition highlights the history of the brand through interactive installations, complete with a gift shop that’s really just an LV store. 

• The Bund: The city’s iconic waterfront and one of the world’s most breathtaking skylines. The area is surrounded by neo-classic buildings and a popular promenade visited by tourists and locals alike.
• Yu Garden: A beautiful garden with period architecture from the Ming Dynasty in the 1500s. It features scenic photo opps, a food and shopping bazaar, and the occasional dragon overhead.

• French Concession / Xintiandi: With its European-style architecture, this former residential area for the French is now a trendy neighborhood with boutiques and cafes and social media photoshoots. In the area is Xintiandi, a pedestrian street refurbished from an old shikumen (traditional stone-gate house).
• People’s Square / Nanjing Road: Shanghai’s city center and largest public park connecting the East and West side of Nanjing Road. Wander through all the sights and smells of this vibrant area. Our hotel was actually right nearby and it proved extremely convenient.

• Shanghai Tower / World Financial Center: Explore one or both of these massive skyscrapers for amazing views of the city. 
• Suzhou: A quick day trip to explore ancient gardens and pagodas and pick up some nice silk gifts. The high-speed rail from Shanghai Station takes less than 30 minutes.

Crumbs (other notes) 📝

• 📱 The most important thing you need to prepare before landing in China is to get your phone ready. Everyone depends on their phone, but in China, it’s an absolute lifeline and required for everything, including payment (cash is still accepted, but rare). There are many videos on exactly what apps you need and how to set them up so do your research and get this sorted before you land. I bought an eSIM from Airalo which came with VPN access, but there are many options. You can also get a physical SIM from the airport. 
• 🏨  We stayed at the historic Park Hotel in People’s Square. The rooms are a bit dated, but very spacious and clean. Do not skip the delicious butterfly pastries from their bakery downstairs. There’s always a line, but hotel guests can order from the room. 
• ✈️  Post-pandemic, non-stop flights from SFO to PVG have dramatically decreased in frequency and increased in price. I flew China Eastern which was fine, but United is also an option. 
• 🚄  China’s infrastructure makes the US look like we’ve living in caves. Trains are clean, efficient, and get you anywhere you need to go.  
• ☀️  Shanghai is hot and humid in the summer. It does get chilly in the winter, but manageable compared to more Northern cities like Beijing where it snows.
• 🦺  China is extremely safe due to country’s strict surveillance.
• 💬  Even though Shanghai is a modern city with many foreigners, most people only speak Mandarin or the local Shanghainese dialect so have your translation app handy.