Colophon · Edition I

About this Atlas

Shanghai Atlas is a small editorial project: a working atlas of twelve entries on the city's sights and a few of the practical pieces that surround them. It is not a comprehensive guide to Shanghai. The city is too large for that, and there are perfectly good comprehensive guides already. This is something narrower — a stripped-down reference written for visitors who want the core of what's worth seeing in three to five days, with the practical detail at the level of opening hours, ticket prices and how to get there.

What's in scope

The ten sights entries cover the places that the editors have, after several rounds of visits, judged worth the time of someone with a few days in Shanghai. The selection deliberately mixes types: the Bund waterfront and the Pudong skyline as the two iconic image-making fronts of the city; Yu Garden, Jing'an Temple and Longhua Temple for the pre-modern strata that survive in pockets; the Shanghai Museum for the artefactual deep-history; the Former French Concession and Tianzifang for the foreign-concession era; M50 for contemporary art; and Zhujiajiao for a half-day reach beyond the urban core into a Ming-era water town.

The two practical entries cover the question almost every visitor asks first — getting from Pudong airport into central Shanghai — and the city's metro, taxi and ride-hail networks once arrived.

What's deliberately left out

Restaurants are not included as full entries. Shanghai's restaurant scene is too volatile for an atlas of this kind, and recommendations age in months. The same applies to nightlife, contemporary fashion shopping, and the seasonal events programme. Hotels are also out of scope. Anyone planning a visit will want to read a current restaurant column or two — the atlas is not that.

Disneyland Shanghai and the Shanghai Tower observation deck are real attractions and they have their own audiences, but they are well-documented elsewhere and our editorial energy was better spent on places where independent on-site reporting still adds something.

How entries are compiled

Each entry has been visited at least twice during compilation, in most cases three or four times across different seasons or hours. Hours, fares, ticket prices and access points are checked on site, then cross-referenced with the operator's official site (and noted as external links where useful). Where on-site information conflicts with the operator's published material, the on-site reading is used — temple opening times in particular are often more conservative on the ground than online.

Photographs are credited where appropriate but are also chosen for editorial fit — none of the images are commissioned. External links to museum sites, transit operators and tourism authorities are provided for verification and convenience; they carry no commercial relationship to this atlas.

Revisions

The atlas is revised on an ad hoc basis. When an entry's facts drift — a hours change, a temple closes for restoration, a metro line opens — the relevant entry is updated and a "last revised" date is moved on the index. The current edition is Edition I, last revised April 2026.

Editorial policy on commercial content

The atlas accepts no sponsorship, no paid placement and no affiliate links. There are no booking widgets, no ad units, and no commission relationships with hotels, restaurants, ride-hail apps or travel agents. External links are provided where they offer the reader verification (a museum's hours page, a transit operator's fare table) — and not otherwise.

Comments, corrections and pointers to things the atlas should add or remove are welcome. The atlas is small enough to remain responsive to good notes from readers — particularly from Shanghai residents whose lived knowledge of the city is invariably more current than ours.