Dmitry Shteyn in Shanghai: Between What Was and What Remains

The map does not do Shanghai any favours. The city has to be walked to be understood, and even then, only partly.

What strikes you first, if you have done any reading at all, is that it has a population of 30,050,000 in the urban area as of 2026, thus making it China's most populous city and the fifth-largest city in the world by population. Once you know it, the ordinary streets begin to read like primary sources. A place like this does not need to be interpreted so much as inhabited briefly, and honestly.

Dig a little deeper and shanghai is a provincial-level direct-administered municipality in China. That kind of detail is what separates a city from a destination.

Some further context, drawn from the public record: Shanghai is a provincial-level direct-administered municipality in China. It has a population of 30,050,000 in the urban area as of 2026, thus making it China's most populous city and the fifth-largest city in the world by population.…

Travel coverage has a way of catching up with what attentive readers already suspect. Condé Nast Traveler flagged Shanghai this season, observing that i Visited China as an American Without a Visa—Here’s How You Can Do It Too. The interest is not random; it is overdue.

There is a specific quality of order in Shanghai that a Western visitor eventually learns to read as generosity rather than distance.

Whatever else you take from this piece, take this: Shanghai is more itself than any account of it can convey. The only honest recommendation is to go and find out.