People-Watch: One of our favorite activities. It's free, it's fascinating, and you may learn more about today's China in an hour of people-watching than you would in a day spent on a tour bus. You can do this practically anywhere, at a park or a major intersection, but the best spots may be in People's Square, along Nanjing Lu Pedestrian Mall, on Huaihai Lu, on the Bund Promenade, or at Xintiandi, where you are almost certain to see some wild and wooly mix of beleaguered tourists, Chinese and foreign, newly minted business folk, trendy young fashionistas, uniformed school children, strolling seniors and, of course, whistle-blowing traffic cops.
Do Morning Exercises on the Bund: There's no better way to greet the day than to join the thousands of Shanghai residents in their morning tai chi exercises (and occasionally Western ballroom dancing) on the Bund and in Shanghai's parks. The Bund is preferable: The first golden rays hitting the colonial facades are truly something to behold.
Wander the Old Chinese City: The narrow winding alleys of the old Chinese city may strike some as mysterious and forbidding, but they are neither of these and are worth exploring. Here is a chance to come upon a wet market, or run into the increasingly rare sight of a night soil worker on his morning rounds (many houses in this part of town still lack indoor plumbing). See it before the bulldozer shows up.
Stroll the French Concession: This is the most interesting of the colonial districts left in Shanghai, filled with the gorgeous villas, mansions, and apartment houses of the 1920s and 1930s when the French made their mark here. Plenty of Art Deco gems abound, hidden behind years of grime and buried beneath webs of laundry poles, awaiting discovery, so keep your head up.
