China · Shanghai Shi · Shanghai
Nanjing Road, Shanghai — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Nanjing Road is Shanghai's premier shopping street, running from the Bund inland toward People's Square.
About Nanjing Road
Where to stay in Nanjing Road
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
The road splits into two halves. Nanjing Road East is the pedestrianised retail spine that ends at the Bund and the Huangpu River, while Nanjing Road West runs west past the Shanghai Museum toward the towers of Jing'an, so where you stay decides whether your mornings open on riverfront neoclassical facades or on quieter park-side blocks. Pick the end that fits your day.
About Nanjing Road
What are the main landmarks in Nanjing Road?
Museums line the western end. Around People's Square the Shanghai Museum, the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai stand within a few minutes of one another, while the Moore Memorial Church marks the corner where the shopping street meets the square. The Shanghai Natural History Museum sits nearby in Jing'an Sculpture Park.
Across the Huangpu River, the Oriental Pearl Tower closes the view east.
What is the history of Nanjing Road?
The street grew with the port. Laid out through the old International Settlement of Shanghai, Nanjing Road rose as the treaty-port city's main commercial artery, its department stores and banks facing the Bund and the trade that moved along the Huangpu River. Commerce made it.
The Monument to the People's Heroes at the Bund now anchors the eastern end, a later marker set where the shopping street once opened onto the wharves.
Where is Nanjing Road?
Nanjing Road cuts west from the Bund and the Huangpu River across central Shanghai, threading People's Square before reaching the tower district of Jing'an in a humid subtropical belt.
Good for
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Updated July 2026