Recently I ventured to the vibrant Chinese city of Shanghai for a friend’s wedding.

(You can see the one and only photo of James and I at the wedding below!).

I previously visited Shanghai a few years ago on business, so I was excited to have a second chance to see more of this vibrant city.

I spent most of my time exploring the beautiful and stimulating streets of the French Concession Area, eating way too much and also taking a quick visit to The Bund.

You can see the boatload of photographs I took below. (I went a bit nuts!).

Enjoy!

The Bund

The Bund is probably Shanghai’s most famous attraction and it’s definitely worth a trip down to the Hungpu River.

The Bund stretches over one mile and showcases dozens of historical buildings that once housed numerous banks and trading houses from across the globe.

You can easily see the different architectural styles including Art Deco, Renaissance, Gothic, Baroque and Neo-Classical. (I had to look this up…I’m no architecture wiz!).

But I do have a hot tip for you!

If you want to escape the crowds and get a higher vantage point to experience The Bund (that won’t break the bank!), head to the Captain Bar.

Here you can sit outside, have a cold drink and watch all of the happenings below!

Where – Captains Bar

Location – 37 Fuzhou Road, 6^th Floor of the Captain Hotel

 

Streets of Shanghai

Like I mentioned before, I spent a lot of time just roaming the streets of the French Concession Area.

There was literally something to photograph on every street corner and I just loved getting an insight into what it would be like to live in this Shanghai neighbourhood.

I loved the locals on their bikes just whizzing by; taking a peek into back yards and front yards to see what washing was hanging out; filling my lungs with the sweet smell of street food; witnessing the locals get rowdy as they play cards; listening to an old guy sing Chinese Opera in the park; working out which patisserie I would dine at next and just generally enjoying the slower pace of life!

I hope my photographs encapsulate this!

 

A Few Random Tips for Visiting Shanghai

• I stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel Ruijin, which is in the heart of the French Concession Area. I highly recommend it as you can pretty much walk everywhere within this neighbourhood
• The Metro is easy to use, but you see so much walking and taxis aren’t very expensive. Hence I did a lot of walking and caught the odd taxi
• Get the concierge at your hotel to write down the address of where you are going in Chinese. Don’t rely on addresses provided on the internet as often they say ‘X is near Y’ rather than provide the exact address
• You can’t access Facebook, instagram, Google etc in China so make sure you have a VPN on your mobile device/laptop when you travel to China
• Instead of using Google as a search engine, you can use the Chinese search engine Baidu.com

I hope that helps!

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Love,