This historic theater up in Hongkou was once a temple, then it was Chinatown, now it's a bubbling club/lounge/bar regularly hosting cabaret theater shows. It's a really beautiful old space with a gallery and theater boxes, with a real feeling of history in the wood,... Read more
High ropes course right next to the International Ferry Terminal, consisting of 94 elements varying in difficulty. A clear day will give you a spectacular view across the river while you are suspended 60ft in the air. Read more
The second location of the original Colca on Hengshan Lu. It's serial restaurateur Eduardo Vargas trying the business strategy of "honesty". He's cooking the food of his heritage: Peruvian. Mode d'emploi: Cocktails at the bar before and / or after dinner with your... Read more
The immense second location of this Jing'an brand of cocktail bar slash rustic eatery. Similar menu and cocktails, and the addition of a live DJ on select nights. Read more
Qipu Lu -- "cheap" street -- is a series of malls crammed, jammed, and stuffed full of cheap, cheap, cheap clothes, with some fakes for good measure. It's ground zero for young local shoppers, and pretty much hell for everyone else. Aggressive touts, swarms of... Read more
The Mr. Pancake House chain has remained in business since around 2008 because they open early and serve cheap, mediocre American diner style breakfast and weak, bottomless coffee all day. It's a sub-Denny's kinda place where people take their one-night-stands or... Read more
The marquee restaurant from the Shanghai Bellagio, Lago is modern Italian fine dining from acclaimed Spanish chef Julian Serrano, celebrated for putting traditional Continental cuisine through his own idiosyncratic, bubbly, molecular prism. It's very much the sister... Read more
Miniature World is a miniature theme park exhibition tucked inside Sinar Mas Plaza in Hongkong District. It was unveiled in early 2019 as China’s first animated miniature museum. Comprising no less than 1,000 sqm, the indoor miniature model display recreates... Read more
Branch of the acclaimed international jazz club, opened in mid 2019 up in Hongkou. The first one in Shanghai and the tenth worldwide. It is 1,700 square meters, with the main room sitting 300 people at once, but it feels a bit... spare. Like a grey box with a stage.... Read more
Premium, high-end American beef from Wolfgang Zweiner, ex-head waiter at Peter Luger, New York City’s most iconic steakhouse. It's part of their international steakhouse chain, with locations from Beverly Hills to Waikiki and Tokyo to Cyprus, to Hong Kong, to Beijing... Read more
There's not loads to see in this former synagogue, but if you're interested in the lives of the 30,000 Jewish refugees who settled in Shanghai before and during the Second World War, this is the place to go. There are two permanent exhibits with artifacts from the... Read more
A French restaurant with a pink and rosy front. Their Antoine Bakery is in the same mall. Read more
Opened in early 2018, it's a luxury hotel with a heavy Art Deco theme. It's also the first branch of the storied MGM hotel brand outside North America, run by a joint venture called Diaoyutai MGM Hospitality, with enough investment from electronics-seller Suning to... Read more
In gaydom, this place is a historical landmark for China’s underground, closeted scene. Way up in Hongkou, Lai Lai is a dance hall in a shabbier part of Shanghai. It screams local in every aspect, and is dominated by middle-aged men. Your only drink option here is... Read more
Perhaps the only dedicated cricket bar/Indian restaurant in town (that we know of anyway), Hit Wicket streams all the big cricket games and other global sporting events on four LED TVs and one huge projector screen. They say they've got seating for 60 people and... Read more
From the Indonesian Sinar Mas Group, the Sinar Mas Plaza is the commercial mall portion of the North Bund development that includes the W Shanghai hotel and a 69-story office building equipped with helipad. Read more