The Urban Edit
It’s no secret that Shanghai has upped its museum game in recent years. And while we’ll always have a soft spot for the good old Shanghai Museum on People’s Square, its epic wait times and packed galleries don’t always result in the slickest experience. Instead a raft of privately-owned spots – think Aurora, The Long Museum and Yuz – have recently been giving the behemoth a run for its money. However we reckon the brand new Guanfu Museum is up there with the best of ‘em.
Confession time, folks. Bespoke rocked up at Shanghai’s newly opened W Hotel with every intention of a thorough investigation of the hotel’s particulars: its room sizes, its conference facilities, its dining venues and so on. And then we saw the swimming pool.
Shanghai is justifiably known for its delicious street breakfasts, but sometimes you need to elevate things a little, right?
When the summer temperatures inevitably soar, the residents of Shanghai know that an early start is the only way to go about their business without fear of heatstroke. It’s a habit energetic visitors should consider adopting, since whilst most museums and galleries don’t open until mid-morning, some of the city’s most endearing neighborhoods are up and moving hours earlier. Ready to dive in? Check out a few of our favorite early morning Shanghai endeavors below.
Turning one hundred years old is no mean feat, so Bespoke’s hearty congratulations go out to the lovely Great World building near People’s Square that was built in 1917. Now, whilst you’ve no doubt whizzed past this grand old dame countless times (and seen the bright white spire that looms over the elevated highway) you might not know that back in her youth she was a bit of a goer.
Opened as the city’s premier ‘entertainment complex’ and later taken over by corrupt-policeman-turned-mob boss ‘Pockmarked Huang’, the Great World was said to be teeming with life of every kind – contemporary accounts tell of everything from opera performances and tightrope walkers to fortune tellers, pickpockets and pimps!
And not just for a handful of one-off tours, but once a month from now until the end of the year!
