or those who love life and pursue fashion, Shanghai is undoubtedly a treasure trove full of surprises. Whether you’re seeking delicious food, shopping, art, or nightlife, Shanghai can satisfy all your desires.
Today, let’s delve into the heart of Shanghai and explore those popular check-in spots that will make you linger and forget to leave.
Art Atmosphere Check-in Spots
Copper Blockhouse
In the Sky Realm, a copper fortress stands on the water stage, crystallizing the beauty of craftsmanship and details, which is worth savoring.
The “Copper Blockhouse” is one of the most representative buildings in the park, shining with a metallic luster, designed by the international master architect Mr. Yu Ting.
The lawn on the north side of the fortress has been transformed into a huge shallow black pool, and the fortress is like a submarine floating out of the water, a shimmering whale, quiet and silent, but with a magnificent heart.
It negates various functional possibilities and uses a multifunctional spiritual fortress as the central building. The museum is a modern church that may be able to settle our restless souls.
📍 EKA Skybound Creativity Park
⏰ All day
Red Brick Art Building
Overlooking the Copper Blockhouse across the pool are two red brick wall buildings. The façade features large red brick walls with black wrought-iron doors and windows, reminiscent of the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing.
In the future, this red brick art wall will introduce the first stores in Pudong, including the German restaurant Lambach and the Spanish restaurant TAPA TAPA. There will also be a special outdoor seating area where you can sit under the shade of the sycamore trees, enjoy delicious food, take photos, and enjoy your leisure time, which sounds very pleasant.
📍 EKA Skybound Creativity Park
⏰ All day
Shanghai Nanxiang Impression City MEGA
The “secret garden” that recently went viral on Xiaohongshu is hidden on the periphery of the first floor of the mall. As soon as you approach the glass house, the sound of the waterfall is endless, and the fragrance of flowers lingers around your nose, as if you are wandering in a tropical rainforest.
The “supermoon” suspended above the forest was created by British artist Luke Jerram using real lunar landscape aerial photography from NASA, which has a strong visual impact. Any random shot is an Ins-style blockbuster~
The Flowing Light Staircase on the fifth floor and the rooftop runway on the top floor both use vibrant rainbow colors, full of artistic atmosphere~
The city’s popular restaurants, Menghua’s Disney princess-themed installations, and monthly art activities… Let’s go check-in together!
📍 No. 2299 Chenxiang Highway
⏰ All day
Foodie Check-in Spots
Zhuzhidou Zhang Ji Chicken Soup Tofu Pudding
“The original chicken soup tofu pudding, 118 years of traditional taste”
People who can usually walk deep into Xinchang Street are coming for Master Zhang’s bowl of chicken soup tofu pudding.
As the 3rd generation inheritor, Master Zhang is very attentive to this intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship that has been passed down for 118 years. He insists on getting up at 2:30 a.m. every day to grind tofu pudding with a stone mill, and he has to simmer several pots of free-range chicken soup a day. Sometimes it can be almost sold out by noon.
As the founding master of the chicken soup tofu pudding world, he uses high-quality native chickens, so there is a layer of golden oil on the surface of the chicken soup. The tofu pudding has a delicate texture and a smooth mouthfeel, and the soybean aroma is quite obvious; the romance of getting up early is worth having~
📍 No. 457 Xinchang Street
⏰ 07:30-13:00
Taisheng Garden Restaurant
The popularity of the TV series “Blossoms” has awakened this old road that had been sleeping for a long time.
Li Li’s Zhizhen Garden in the show is actually this Taisheng Garden Restaurant, the earliest Benbang cuisine restaurant opened on Huanghe Road.
The big deals reached at the dining tables here are countless.
The 5-story facade plus the huge relief at the top can still feel the aura of that year.
Now the main dishes are around 100 yuan, and the cold dishes and vegetable stir-fries are also affordable, such as osmanthus sugar lotus root, small yellow croaker with seaweed, and crispy pigeon…
Every aunt and uncle who comes here for a meal has their own menu in mind early on.
📍 No. 50 Huanghe Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai
⏰ 10:00-14:00, 16:30-20:30
il laboratorio del gelato Ice Cream Laboratory
New York-style handmade ice cream, first store in Shanghai
With a blue roof and semi-circular arches, the cold metal-colored interior of the store seems to be bursting with technology.
Positioned as a high-end brand, il laboratorio del gelato offers more than a dozen flavors of gelato to choose from, as well as snacks, coffee, and soda.
There are many innovative flavors to choose from in the cabinet. The blue-labeled flavors are dairy-free, while the white-labeled flavors contain dairy. Which one will you pick?
📍 No. 105, Building 5, No. 8 Hengshan Road
⏰ 12:00-21:30
TOUGH PLANET
A collection store that combines bakery, coffee, art, and retail!
The store is filled with a variety of niche and trendy lifestyle items, where you can wander around and find interesting things in life, or sit and relax with a cup of coffee. Of course, you can also start exploring and socializing mode. The huge open space in front of the store often gathers various players, such as street running, petting, cycling, and more!
TOUGH PLANET, a fusion of diverse street culture and trendy art, is the perfect place to check in with your friends on weekends!
📍 No. 102, No. 233 South Shaanxi Road
⏰ 07:00-19:00
Park Check-in Spots
Shanghai Riverside Forest Park
In late April, the ubiquitous sky-blue flax flowers exude an extremely romantic atmosphere.
The light and shadow in the forest are just right, like a Chinese version of the Wizard of Oz, which is very healing.
The soft afternoon sunlight gilds the pure white hydrangeas with a layer of gold powder, adding a touch of warmth to the atmosphere.
The afternoon sunlight, the thatched pavilion hidden in the rhododendron garden with brilliant red leaves, and the green grass in the pond outline a vibrant spring scene.
You can camp here, or have a barbecue, which is very suitable for socializing and a brief escape from the troubles of the world~
📍 No. 3, Lingqiao Gaosha Beach, Gaoqiao Town, Pudong New Area
⏰ 8:00–17:00
Gongqing Forest Park
Shanghai’s version of Monet’s Garden
This forest park, which has become famous for its “Monet’s Garden” in Shanghai, is not only a “Monet’s Garden”, but also has many picturesque scenery that has been overlooked.
Entering from the west gate of the park, you will be greeted by trees that cover the sky.
If you love hiking, it is actually highly recommended to head northeast first, through winding paths, until you reach the “Pine Wave Valley” in the northeast corner, where you can see a gurgling stream.
Located in the center of the park, Camphor Plaza has two popular check-in spots. One is the “Monet Flower Ladder” on Camphor Plaza.
The overall design is based on Monet’s work “The Garden at Giverny”, creating an art installation: the painting is suspended in the air on an invisible bracket, extending into an 8-meter-long flower belt, as if the secret realm in the painting is flowing into reality.
The second is the “Monet Garden” on the bridge, adjacent to the “Flower Art Museum”. The oil painting forest and the lush grass make visitors feel as if they are in a beautiful fairyland.
📍 No. 2000, Jungong Road, Yangpu District
⏰ 5:00-19:30
Jiabei Country Park
A romantic “oil painting date”
Located in the northwest part of the main urban area of Jiading New Town, Jiabei Country Park is an important landmark of Shanghai’s “urban lungs”. The farmland and woodland in the park are continuous, and the water network and bridges are interspersed, with the 7,000-year-old “Gangshen Culture” containing endless vitality.
The lake surface is rippling, and the lakeside is lush green. Riding a small boat to open up a pool of green, leisurely and carefree, gliding slowly in the rippling water, this scene is simply extremely comfortable!
“Camping is a grown-up’s game of house”, this sentence has been particularly proven in recent years!
On days when you can’t dine out or travel, camping has become a new choice for many residents living in Shanghai!
Go to Jiabei Country Park with three or five good friends, bring food and pets to relax, and enjoy your long weekend~
Simple and easy, have a memorable barbecue picnic. Whether it’s a full set of equipment or just a simple picnic mat, facing the open lake and the large green space behind, heal your broken soul!
📍 No. 5051, Huyi Highway, Jiading District
⏰ 09:00~16:00 (closed on rainy days)
Explore Shanghai and discover every corner of the trend! From modern art exhibitions to traditional alley snacks, Shanghai always has countless surprises waiting for every explorer.
