The Bund's skyline and old shikumen lanes
Shanghai grew from a treaty port into China's commercial capital, and its two faces sit either side of the Huangpu. On the west bank, the Bund is a line of grand colonial-era banks and trading houses; across the water Pudong's towers include the Shanghai Tower and the Oriental Pearl. The former French Concession has plane-tree avenues, villas and cafés, while Yu Garden and the old city show an older Shanghai. Eat xiaolongbao soup dumplings, and take a day trip to the canal towns.