Shanghai, China's most populous city, is a thriving global financial hub known for its futuristic skyline and rich cultural heritage, making it a captivating blend of tradition and innovation.
Many business travellers who stay in serviced apartments in Shanghai have found that their experience was much better than when they have stayed in a standard hotel room. Situ’s luxury apartments in Shanghai offer privacy and space. In these fully furnished properties, businesspeople can expect a free wi-fi connection, fully equipped kitchens, a spacious living room. and a housekeeping service.
Our range of apartments in the city are available for both short and long-term lets, allowing you to stay here for anything between a few days and several months. Staying in an aparthotel in Shanghai is also an option, where guests have their own serviced apartment as well as the facilities a hotel can offer, such as a reception, restaurant, gym, and possibly an indoor pool.
Shanghai is located roughly halfway down the East China Sea coastline on the eastern side of China. From here, it’s 664 miles in a north-westerly direction to Beijing, the Chinese capital; and 429 miles in a westerly direction to Wuhan. Major cities a little closer to Shanghai include Hangzhou, 100 miles to the south-west; and Nanjing, 168 miles to the north-west. By any measure, Shanghai is a vast city. It covers an area of 2,400 square miles and is home to around 27 million people, making it one of the largest urban areas in the world.
Shanghainese, a dialect of Wu Chinese, is widely spoken by the local population, even though the official language here is Mandarin Chinese. Many signs in the city are written in English and many people who conduct business internationally will speak English. The currency here is the renminbi (also known as the yuan), with one renminbi divided into 100 fen or 10 jiao.
Transport is certainly not an issue in Shanghai. There are direct flights to the city from almost every corner of the world, then there’s a vast network of internal flights, high-speed trains, city metro trains, and buses you can use when you get here.
Shanghai is a huge global business centre. On the shoreline, you’ll find the world’s busiest container port, while the city's financial centre is home to some of the largest companies from across the globe. The country attracts businesspeople from across the world, there is considerable foreign investment. Even in a vast nation of more than one billion, the Shanghai area contributes as much as 20% of China’s GDP.
The city is home to companies from a wide range of different business sectors, with some of the most significant industries here including financial services, construction, real estate, retail, and technology. The service sector now makes up around three-quarters of the Shanghai economy, but there is still a significant manufacturing presence, with steel, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals all made here.
When you arrive in Shanghai, you will soon realise that this is a very modern city. However, if you look beyond the skyscrapers, glass shopping malls, and bright lights, you will find some hidden gems that hark back to an earlier time.
Jing'an Temple isn’t hard to find – it’s in the heart of the commercial district and actually sits on top of a metro station. This 13th century building has three vast halls you can visit, one of which houses an incredible 2.5-metre-high jade Buddha. The exterior is also well worth seeing, especially in the evening light. Some of the best early 20th century buildings include St Ignatius Cathedral, with its twin spires; and the Art Deco gem that is the 22-storey Park Hotel. It’s a measure of how fast Shanghai has changed when you consider that, at 22 storeys, this was the tallest building in the city as recently as 1982!
In Shanghai today, by contrast, you can ride the elevator to the 118th floor of the Shanghai Tower, where you’ll find the highest observation deck in the world for superb views of the city. If you want to escape the bustle of the very busy central location, spend some time amongst the pagodas, bridges, and lakes of Yuyuan Garden.
When visiting Shanghai you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to finding a restaurant serving authentic Cantonese cuisine. There are also some fine French restaurants here as well as ‘East meets West’ menus.
The largest airport in China is Pudong International Airport, 19 miles east of central Shanghai. There are direct flights from here to almost 200 destinations worldwide, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Montreal, Sydney, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Beijing, Wuhan, Tokyo, New Delhi, Mumbai, London, Moscow, and Paris, to name just a few.
Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport is 12 miles west of the city center. It serves around 50 destinations, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzen, Wuhan, Chengdu, and other cities throughout China.
Shanghai has a superb city metro system, and with almost 500 miles of track, it’s one of the largest metropolitan rail networks in the world. The 19 lines serve all areas of the city centre and 14 of the city’s 16 metropolitan districts. Pudong Airport is at the end of line 2. Trains typically operate between 5am and 10pm – exact timings vary on different lines – and trains might be as frequent as every two minutes at peak times.
There are also a number of high-speed inter-city services from Shanghai., including very regular services to Beijing, where the fastest trains complete the journey in four and a half hours; several overnight sleeper trains per day to Xian; several more trains each day for the seven-hour trip to Guangzhou; and daily trains to Nanning, via Guilin
Again public transportation is very developed here. Shanghai has more than 1,000 bus routes, most of which have a very frequent service. Some routes operate 24 hours a day.
Long distance coach services connect Shanghai with Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, Huangshan, Ningbo, Xi’an, Beijing, and Guangzhou.
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