Shanghai Old City (Nanshi)

What is Shanghai's Old City?

The Old City, or Nanshi, is Shanghai before it became a treaty port: a walled Chinese county town that existed long before the Bund and the foreign concessions. You can still trace its outline on a map. Renmin Road forms the northern half of a ring and Zhonghua Road the southern half — both laid over the wall and moat after demolition began in 1912.

Inside the ring are around 200 hectares of dense streets. Yu Garden and the City God Temple sit in the north-east, wrapped in the busy Yuyuan Bazaar. West and south of them the lanes turn residential: laundry on bamboo poles, vegetable stalls, workshops and tiny noodle shops.

Set your expectations honestly. The wall is gone, many houses have been rebuilt, and Old Street in front of the temple was re-created as a tourist strip. What makes the area worthwhile is the mix — a handful of genuine historic sites, everyday lanes, and a sense of the Chinese city that was here before the skyscrapers.

What to see in the Old City

• Shanghai Old Street (上海老街) — an 825 m stretch of Fangbang Middle Road between South Henan Road and Renmin Road, split in two at Guanyi Street. One half is styled on Ming and Qing buildings with red pillars and lattice windows; the other keeps late-Qing and early-Republic shopfronts. Teahouses, seal carvers, herbal medicine shops and plenty of souvenirs.
• Dajing Ge (大境阁) on Dajing Road — the only surviving piece of the city wall, with a pavilion and a hall to Guandi on top and a small photo exhibition about the walled city inside. The clearest place to picture where the wall ran.
• Baiyun Guan (白云观) — a Quanzhen Taoist temple right next to Dajing Ge at 239 Dajing Road, moved here in the 2000s and now home to the Shanghai Taoist Association.
• Chenxiang Ge (沉香阁) — a Buddhist nunnery a few steps from Yu Garden, named after its agarwood statue of Guanyin, enshrined on the upper floor.
• Wenmiao Confucian Temple (文庙), 215 Wenmiao Road — the only Confucian temple in central Shanghai, on this site since 1855. Currently closed for a major renovation; see below.
• Yu Garden and the City God Temple — the district's two ticketed headliners, each with its own page, joined by the Yuyuan Bazaar's lanes of shops and snack stalls.
• The lanes between Fangbang Road and Dajing Road — a protected historic zone of narrow alleys, old doorways and daily life without shop windows.

Is Shanghai Old City worth visiting?

Yes, if you want Chinese Shanghai and not just skyscrapers and the colonial Bund. It costs nothing, it is 15 minutes' walk from the Bund, and it packs in temples, teahouses, markets and lanes. It works best paired with Yu Garden: the garden gives you the classical beauty, the Old City gives you the context around it.

Skip it if you expect an intact medieval town. The wall is gone, much is rebuilt, and Old Street is a stage set with repeating souvenir stalls. Fans of early-20th-century architecture will get more from the Former French Concession, and for canals and stone bridges head out to Zhujiajiao.

A one- to two-hour walking loop

Go north-east to south-west. From Yuyuan Garden station, take in Yu Garden and the City God Temple, then head west along Old Street; past Guanyi Street the crowds thin noticeably. Turn north to Dajing Road, where Dajing Ge and Baiyun Guan stand side by side, roughly 900 m in a straight line from the City God Temple.

From Dajing Ge, cut south through the lanes to Wenmiao Road, about 850 m further. Even with the temple shut, the streets around it are worth the walk. Finish at Laoximen station, about 500 m away. Point to point it is roughly 3 km as the crow flies, more through the lanes — allow one to two hours at an easy pace.

Weekday mornings are best: Old Street is still quiet and the back lanes are at their most lived-in. The streets stay open in the evening, but Old Street's shops and teahouses close and Dajing Ge keeps daytime hours only.

Dajing Ge and the old city wall

Shanghai's wall was built under the Ming in 1553–54 to keep out Japanese pirate raids. After the 1911 revolution it came down from 1912, and by 1914 a ring road had replaced the wall and moat. Only small fragments survive, the main one at Dajing Ge: a stretch of wall topped by a pavilion with a shrine to Guandi.

Inside is a small exhibition of photographs of the wall, gates and old streets. Guides give hours of roughly 9:00–16:00 or 8:30–16:00; there is no official website and we could not confirm the fee, so check at the door. Sources disagree on the street number (239, 259 or 269), so look for 大境阁 on Dajing Road beside Baiyun Guan.

Is the Wenmiao Confucian Temple open?

Short answer: probably not yet. It closed for renovation in autumn 2021, and in early 2023 the Shanghai government said it would reopen in 2025 with a new library, lecture hall and gardens. We found no English or Chinese report that it has actually reopened, so check before you build a day around it.

The temple was founded in 1294 and has stood at 215 Wenmiao Road since 1855, with its Dacheng Hall, Kuixing Pavilion and Lingxing Gate. Its famous Sunday second-hand book market closed in 2020 ahead of the works.

Old City, City God Temple or French Concession?

The City God Temple and Yu Garden are inside the Old City, so one walk covers all three.

Paying and eating

Most stalls and snack shops take QR payments by Alipay or WeChat Pay, and both accept linked foreign Visa and Mastercard cards — set them up before you fly. Contactless foreign cards are far less useful in small shops, so keep some yuan in small notes for the back lanes.

Eat where locals eat. Prices around the Yuyuan Bazaar are tourist-level, while the lanes west of Old Street have ordinary dumpling and noodle shops. Xiaolongbao — soup-filled dumplings — are the district's signature food.

Historic Shanghai compared

Historic sights in Shanghai rated by YesGo. Tap a column heading to sort.

Nearby — add to your day

38

City God Temple

Shanghai, China

30 min · ≈ ¥10 (one guide says free) · 7 min walk

Yes — add to my route: City God Temple

46

Yu Garden

Shanghai, China

1 h 15 min · ¥30–40 by season · 9 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Yu Garden

41

Xintiandi

Shanghai, China

1 h · Free · 25 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Xintiandi

59

The Bund

Shanghai, China

1 h · Free · 25 min walk

Yes — add to my route: The Bund

How to do it right

• Start at Yuyuan Garden station and finish at Laoximen so you never retrace your steps.
• West of Guanyi Street, Old Street is noticeably calmer than the bazaar end.
• Come on a weekday before noon: Dajing Ge only opens in the daytime and Old Street's shops shut by evening.
• Do Yu Garden first and shop afterwards — carrying bags around the garden is no fun.
• In the evening, Shiliupu pier is close by — end the day with a Huangpu River cruise.
• Check whether Wenmiao has reopened before making a special trip.
• Save the Chinese names of each stop: taxi drivers rarely know the English ones.

Questions