shanghai

Shanghai's French Concession is my favourite neighbourhood in any Chinese city. I know — I'm a Chongqing girl, I should say my hometown. But the French Concession is different. Wide plane-tree-lined streets. 1920s art deco buildings hiding speakeasies and indie bookstores. Old lane houses where laundry hangs between centuries-old architecture and modern coffee shops. I take a morning walk there every time I'm in Shanghai: start at Wukang Road, grab coffee at a random lane house cafe, walk through the Fuxing Park (where locals ballroom dance in the morning — yes, really), then end up at a xiaolongbao place on Xintiandi for soup dumplings. Most tourists rush to the Bund and Pudong and miss this entire side of Shanghai. The Bund is spectacular at sunset. But the French Concession is where the city breathes. If you only have one day in Shanghai, spend the morning in the Concession and the evening on the Bund. That's the real Shanghai contrast.