Although Shanghai is a massive city that can be intimidating at first, once we started exploring we found that this is one of the best things about living here as there is always something new to see or a reliable destination that you know will be a fun way to spend the afternoon with the family. Here are some of our Shanghai favorites.
Former French Concession
We searched and searched for a place to live in Shanghai and although we found some places bigger or nicer, after seeing the beautiful tree lined streets of the Former French Concession we knew this was the only neighborhood for us. Here we have parks of various sizes all within a 10-15 minute walk, lots of great restaurants from local to international, quiet streets compared to the rest of the city and historical architecture around every corner. We like to go running with Charlie and the nice thing about the Former French Concession is that many of the streets are one way, which makes it safer with the running stroller.
The Bund
One of the best things about working down by People’s Square is that if we are able to get out of work at a reasonable hour we can go have a quick drink or date night on The Bund and enjoy the city’s beautiful skyline at night. There are so many options to choose from that we can always find a new place to try or go back to one of our favorites such as Hakkasan, the review of which you can find here.
Soup Dumplings
No visit to Shanghai is complete without trying some mouth watering soup dumplings, or Xiaolongbao. We like these so much that we tend to have them at least a couple times a month and Din Tai Feng because it is so family friendly and reliably clean. Xiaolongbao are a type of Chinese steamed bun (baozi) that is prepared in a Xiaolong, which is a kind of bamboo steaming basket. They are traditionally made with pork but can come in all kinds of fillings such as minced crab and vegetables.
West Bund
Whenever we aren’t sure what to do and the weather is decent we end up heading down to a new green space area called the West Bund. There is a great museum called the Long Museum, dog parks where many pet lovers in the city hangout on the weekend, young Chinese skateboarding along all the wide open industrial concrete spaces as well as groups practicing yoga. Its a nice place for a picnic to people watch and see the boats make there way down the Huangpu River.
