Yu Garden & the Old City
The round old walled city south of the Bund: Yu Garden, the City God Temple, and the bazaar quarter that grew up around them.
The classical-China fix: a Ming-dynasty garden, a working Taoist temple and lane-house streets inside the round old walled city, a 15-minute walk south of the Bund.
Peak tourist-trap density — the bazaar around the garden is a themed shopping mall with tourist pricing; know what you are queueing for before you queue. And the 'old lanes of the walled city' you may have read about are mostly gone: the blocks between the garden and Dajing Road (Luxiangyuan, Fuyou, Qiaojia Road) were cleared between 2018 and 2022 and are now building sites or new towers, with Old Street's eastern half waiting for redevelopment. Come for the garden, the temple, the teahouse and the river piers, not for lane-wandering.
Places here
4 Huxinting Teahouse & the Nine-Bend Bridge
Must-seeShoppingThe pavilion teahouse in the middle of the Yu Garden pond, reached by the zigzag Nine-Bend Bridge — the oldest teahouse in Shanghai and the single most photographed scene in the Old City. Reopened in July 2025 after a two-year restoration (official sources give 10 or 11 July); the ground floor serves set tea-and-snack sittings, the upper floor is a pricier tea-ceremony room.
5 Shanghai City God Temple
Must-seeTempleThe working Taoist temple at the heart of the old town, dedicated to Shanghai's city gods. Small, incense-filled and genuinely active — a 30-minute visit that anchors the Yuyuan bazaar area, whose name (城隍庙) locals use for the whole neighborhood.
7 Yu Garden
Must-seeGardenA dense Ming-dynasty classical garden of rockeries, ponds and zigzag corridors hidden inside the old walled town — the ticketed garden itself, not to be confused with the free shopping bazaar that surrounds it and borrows its name.
1 Dajing Pavilion & the Old City Wall
Closed for nowLandmarkThe only surviving stretch of Shanghai's 1553 city wall — about fifty metres of rampart with a Qing temple-pavilion on top — squeezed between Renmin Road and a lane of the Old City. Historically important, physically small, and, according to the city tourism board's listing, not open: the pavilion now serves as offices for the Shanghai Taoist Association. Look at it from the pavement.
2 Dongjiadu Cathedral (St. Francis Xavier)
Closed for nowLandmarkThe Spanish-baroque basilica consecrated in 1853 on what was then the riverside edge of the walled city — China's first church built for over two thousand people and the first cathedral of the Shanghai diocese. It is closed for a long-running restoration (no mass, no visits, courtyard shut), and everything around it has been cleared for the Dongjiadu financial district. Worth knowing about; not currently worth a detour.
3 Huangpu River Ferry (Jinling East Road to Dongchang Road)
ExperienceThe 2-yuan public ferry across the Huangpu from the south end of the Bund to Lujiazui — the cheap alternative to the tourist cruise and the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. Ten minutes on the water with the whole Bund facade behind you and the towers ahead, then you are on the Pudong riverside. Pay with a transport card, a phone QR, or cash at the turnstile. Runs to 18:30 on the Dongjin line; the Dongfu line a little south runs to 22:00 in summer.
6 Shiliupu Wharf & the Huangpu River Cruise
ExperienceThe main departure point for Huangpu River cruises, at the south end of the Bund. The standard 45-minute loop gives the Bund and the Pudong skyline from the water; night sailings are the reason people come. Tickets are sold on site and through the operator's mini-program — a typical place where a foreign visitor may hit the QR-only payment wall.