A Month in Shanghai - Shanghai, China

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The Pudong skyline across the Huangpu River on a clear winter afternoon, the Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower dominating the view.

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A month in Shanghai, and somehow only 18 photos to show for it. Not because there wasn’t anything worth shooting, the opposite really. Some places you’re so busy just living in them that the camera stays in the bag.

An aerial view of the Bund at night, the Huangpu River curving through the city with the colonial waterfront lit up below.
A bowl of Shanghai scallion noodles, thin and glossy, with a bamboo steamer visible in the background.
A Christmas lantern with a snow globe scene inside, hanging among decorative baubles at a Shanghai street market.

The museums were a highlight. The Shanghai Biennale at Power Station of Art was one of the better exhibitions I’ve been to, the building itself is a converted power plant and the architecture is half the experience. This one was themed around ecology and nature, and there was this installation of upside-down yellow trees suspended from the ceiling that genuinely stopped me in my tracks.

A large subway advertisement for the 15th Shanghai Biennale reading 'Does the Flower Hear the Bee?' in English and Chinese.
Two large upside-down yellow trees suspended from the ceiling of the Power Station of Art, their fallen leaves scattered across the gallery floor.

Pudong Art Museum was the other one. They had a Picasso exhibition and pieces on loan from the Louvre, watching the light hit the Bund across the water, was genuinely one of the best moments of the month.

The illuminated MAP Museum of Art Pudong sign glowing white against a dark interior at night.
The stark white interior of the MAP Museum in Pudong, visitors silhouetted against large backlit windows at the top of the stairs.
The Bund skyline seen from Pudong through a warm golden haze at sunset, the sun low behind the colonial buildings.

After that I went to try the North Korean state-owned restaurant nearby. Not something you stumble into often. They had a no-photography sign inside, very on brand.

The entrance lobby of a North Korean restaurant in Shanghai, red Korean and Chinese characters on the wall alongside food display photos.
A stone bowl of North Korean bibimbap with beef and vegetables at the restaurant in Shanghai.
A no-photography sign inside the North Korean restaurant, lit with a blue LED strip above it.

Spent a morning at Yu Garden before leaving, it was already being decorated for the new year, red banners and lanterns everywhere. Then one last walk along the Bund.

The Yu Garden bazaar entrance decorated with a large golden snake and flowers for the Chinese New Year.
Sunlight streaming through willow trees and ornamental rock formations inside Yu Garden.
Rows of red calligraphy banners and lanterns hanging between the eaves of Yu Garden's traditional rooftops.
Pedestrians on the Bund street with grand colonial-era buildings stretching into the distance under a clear winter sky.
The Pudong skyline across the Huangpu River on a clear winter afternoon, the Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower dominating the view.
The Bund lit up at night viewed from Pudong, its grand waterfront buildings glowing gold and reflected on the Huangpu River.

Left early morning on the 10th. The city was still dark and quiet when I got to the airport. Felt strange leaving somewhere that had started to feel genuinely familiar.

An airplane wing cutting through thick morning fog at Shanghai, a pale orange sunrise barely visible on the horizon.

-- Zhun Hao

Published: Jan 10 2026
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