2026

If you've just arrived in Shanghai and golf is your game, here's the honest starting point: golf isn't one of the most popular sports in the city's expat community, and it doesn't have anywhere near the visible infrastructure of, say, football, running clubs, basketball, tennis or badminton. You won't find a golf group on every compound noticeboard. But the people who do play here play seriously, the...

There's a particular stretch of North Wulumuqi Road in Jing'an where the city seems to hold its breath. The traffic noise from Nanjing West Road fades, the plane trees close overhead, and suddenly you're standing in front of a set of six granite-clad towers that manage to look both imposing and discreet at the same time. This is Grand Summit. It's not the flashiest compound in Shanghai. It doesn't...

There's a moment when you're walking through Shanghai's Expo Culture Park (世博文化公园) that you forget you're in a city of 25 million people. The breeze comes off the Huangpu River. The trees are dense. And if you've just climbed the 48-meter Twin Hills (双子山), you're looking down at a panorama that includes both Lupu Bridge and the Lujiazui skyline. This isn't a park you stumble upon by...

Some compounds try to impress you with gardens. Others with clubhouses or architecture. Jing'an Four Seasons does something far more practical: it sits directly on top of the West Nanjing Road metro station, in the middle of the most commercially dense part of Shanghai. That single fact defines the building. It is not the greenest compound in Jing'an, nor the largest, nor the most luxurious. But for...

One of the first things you notice after moving to Shanghai is that your usual streaming apps don't work the way they used to. BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and many other services are geo-blocked. Local TV is in Chinese. And if you want to watch a live sports event from back home, the options can seem confusing. The good news is there are several ways to watch foreign television in Shanghai — some official,...

At some point in your first few months in Shanghai, someone will invite you to KTV. It might be a colleague celebrating a project win. A friend's birthday. A casual "we should hang out" that turns into a 3-hour singing session at 2 AM. If you have never been to a Chinese KTV, you are in for a surprise. It is not the Western karaoke bar where strangers watch you sing. It is a private room with your...

You have been in Shanghai for a few months. You have mastered the metro, figured out Didi, and can navigate the city without a map. But every time you see a car pull up with a driver who is not a Didi driver, you start to wonder: Should I buy a car? Then you hear about the license plate. Someone tells you it costs nearly 100,000 RMB. Someone else says you can get one for free. Both are...

One of the first questions we hear from clients before they move to Shanghai is almost always the same: “Is it safe?” It is a fair question. You are moving to a new country, a new city, a new continent. You want to know if you can walk home at night, if your family will be secure, and if there is anything you should be worried about. The short answer is: Shanghai is one of the safest large...

If you are an expat family living in central Shanghai, you have probably heard the name. You may have seen it in rankings, heard it mentioned at a playdate, or noticed it on a school bus route winding through Jing'an. YK Pao School is one of the most sought-after bilingual schools in China. Its Primary Campus sits on the Jing'an-Changning border, minutes from the Former French Concession. For families...

When the idea of learning Mandarin first crosses an expat's mind, Shanghai often appears as the obvious answer. It is modern, connected, and filled with opportunities. Yet, after living here for a while, many foreigners discover that the reality of language learning in a global city is more complex than they expected . Shanghai is not a magic solution. You cannot simply move here and expect...