12 Romantic Things to Do in Shanghai for Couples

Shanghai is a strange city to be in love in. It is enormous and loud and made mostly of glass, and then you turn down a side street in the old French Concession and the plane trees close over your head and it goes completely quiet.

That contrast is the whole point. The best romantic things to do in Shanghai are not the expensive ones. They are the ones that use the contrast properly.

Twelve below, priced for 2026, flagged for what needs booking in advance. At the end there is also a short list of places that have shut, since half the romantic Shanghai guides still online keep sending couples to bars that closed years ago.

Romantic things to do in Shanghai: the 12, at a glance

Two of those cost nothing. The cheapest boat trip on the list is two yuan. So no, this is not a guide written on the assumption you have money to burn, though Shanghai will happily take it if you do.

You can browse live pricing for the bookable ones on things to do in Shanghai.

1. Sunset from Shanghai Tower, floor 118

Tallest building in China. Fastest lifts anywhere. Eighteen metres a second gets you to floor 118 in about 53 seconds, and your ears will pop on the way.

Floor 118 sits at 546 metres. The Shanghai Tower ticket costs about ¥180 on a normal day, rising to ¥199 on holidays. A combination ticket including the damper show on floors 125 and 126 runs about ¥268.

How to time it, which matters more than anything else here:

• Ride up 60 to 75 minutes before sunset — one ticket then covers daylight, the colour change and the lit skyline. Three views, one price.
• The price holds at any hour, so booking a noon slot makes no sense at all.
• Avoid midday — haze flattens the whole thing.
• Check the forecast a day out and move the booking if it looks grey, since 546 metres of cloud is a waste of money.
• Want an evening of it? The Shanghai Tower ticket with a meal bundles food in, and other high-up options sit under Shanghai observation decks.

2. Walk the Bund promenade after dark

Free, and still the best hour in the city.

What you are actually looking at, and when:

• The walkway — 1.6 km, raised, with 1920s banking houses behind you and Pudong across the water.
• By day — wall-to-wall tour groups. Not the version you want.
• After 19:00 — crowds thin, buildings light up, and it turns into something else entirely.
• The Pudong side — what most visitors miss. The riverside walkway and Lujiazui Central Green reverse the view, so you get lit colonial facades rather than glass towers. Quieter, free, better photographs.
• Two evenings? — one bank each night. They barely feel like the same city.

If you would rather have the walking done for you, guided options and passes are listed under Shanghai tickets. A Shanghai city card can work out cheaper when you are stacking several paid sights into two or three days.

3. Cross the Huangpu by boat

There are three ways onto the water here, and the cheapest of them is the best-kept secret in the city.

Which of the four to actually take:

• The ¥2 ferry — a working commuter boat, not a tour. Eight minutes, open deck, crossing exactly the water the ¥120 cruise crosses. For two people it beats the cruise, since nobody narrates and nobody photographs the back of your head.
• The ¥120 sightseeing cruise — fifty minutes, fine, and worth it if you want the full length of the waterfront rather than a crossing.
• Dinner cruises, ¥298 to ¥598 — skip them. The food is mediocre and you spend the evening looking down at a plate rather than out at a skyline. Eat on land. Then take the ferry.
• A private charter, from ¥1,500 — only if you have a reason. Book about two weeks ahead.

4. Walk the plane trees of the French Concession

This is the one that surprises people, and it costs nothing.

What you are walking through, and when to do it:

• The streets — a grid of low roads lined with London plane trees planted a century ago. The canopy closes right overhead in summer, then turns gold through November.
• Start late afternoon so you finish at dusk.
• Mornings work too, though Fuxing Park fills then with tai chi groups and ballroom dancers. Charming, certainly. Private, no.
• Worth a detour — Sinan Mansions, a cluster of 1930s garden villas where you can eat in a courtyard for ¥400 to ¥800 a head.

5. Dinner with a Bund view

Do this once, and book it properly, since the window tables are the entire point and they go before anything else.

Two things worth knowing before you book:

• Set lunch beats dinner — roughly ¥300 to ¥500 at the starred places against ¥800 to ¥1,500 in the evening. Same kitchen, same room, usually the same view. On a tight budget, take the lunch and spend the evening on a rooftop.
• Taian Table needs real planning — weekend tables go one to two months out. Everything else is fine a week ahead, and say the word “window” when you book.

6. Find a rooftop bar above the skyline

Few cities do rooftops better, largely because this skyline rewards being looked at from several different angles.

Three practical notes before you pick one:

• Speak Low — entered through a bookshop door, with floors two and three on reservation only. No booking? Senator Saloon takes walk-ins and works fine before 21:00.
• No view, huge atmosphere — The Long Bar at the Waldorf Astoria is a rebuilt 1910 room, and the Old Jazz Band at the Fairmont Peace Hotel plays nightly from 19:00 on a ¥418 minimum spend.
• Dress codes — Flair enforces smart casual, and shorts with sandals get turned away at several of these. Pack one decent outfit if a rooftop night matters.

7. Tianzifang and Yuyuan Bazaar, after 20:00

By day, both are tourist traps. By night, both are lovely. The only variable is when the coaches pull out.

Two places, one rule, and the rule is the hour:

• Tianzifang — a knot of shikumen lane houses now full of bars, studios and tiny shops. Half an hour of lantern-lit wandering, and the lanes run narrow enough that you end up single file.
• Yuyuan Bazaar — runs late and empties after about 20:00. Upturned eaves, lanterns on the water, and after eight you can actually photograph them.
• Cost — nothing to walk through either of them.
• Food — overpriced inside both, so eat before you go.

Both sit close enough to walk between, so pair them with Yu Garden below and you have one complete evening without a single taxi. More ideas in the same area are collected on our attraction guides.

8. Yu Garden in the quiet hours

A classical Chinese garden from the 1550s, sitting right beside the bazaar. Rockeries, ponds, dragon walls, pavilions. Whether you enjoy it comes down to three things:

• The hour, not the day — it is small and fills fast, so arrive at opening or near 15:00 once the morning groups clear.
• Last entry is 16:00, so a leisurely afternoon plan will not survive contact with it.
• Closed Mondays — this trips up people who have blocked the whole Yuyuan area as one combined day.

9. Book a couples spa afternoon

Shanghai runs two entirely separate spa markets, and the gap between them is enormous.

Which to pick, honestly:

• A hotel couples suite is an event and priced that way, so book one when the occasion warrants.
• After a day of walking, most people do better with a ¥150 foot massage, given three of those still undercut a single hotel hour.
• Allow three hours for the hotel version. Changing, tea and the slow exit all count toward that.
• Rarely any English at neighbourhood places, but pointing at a menu gets you there.

10. Do Shanghai Disneyland as a date, not a family trip

Sounds odd, and it works anyway. Mostly because the park turns genuinely beautiful after dark, and the castle show is far better than it needs to be.

Prices move by date tier, with over ¥300 between the cheapest day and the dearest. Here is the spread:

Read the number rather than the tier name, because the labels are translations and mean very little. Your date decides the price.

Booking rules that catch people out

Things worth knowing before you book Shanghai Disneyland tickets:

• Every ticket is bound to the passport or ID used at purchase, and staff scan it at the gate, so names must match.
• Entrance booths are closed, which means you must buy online before you arrive.
• Pricing opens about 30 days out, and going 10 or more days early can knock roughly ¥50 to ¥70 off.
• Two-day tickets save around 10 percent a day, provided the days run consecutively.
• There is an afternoon ticket from 15:00 on selected dates only, around ¥249 adult when it runs.

Premier Access is the queue-skip, sold only on the day through four official channels, at roughly ¥120 to ¥300 per attraction. If you would rather lock it in beforehand, the bundled options are easier: 3 attractions, 6 attractions, 8 attractions or 14 attractions. Our Premier Access guide explains which tier is worth it.

A cost note before you book anything. Park tickets end up the single biggest line on most Shanghai trips, so compare dates properly first. Our guide to cheaper Disneyland tickets covers the tricks that apply across Disney parks, and Shanghai theme parks lists what else is bookable.

11. Spend a day in Zhujiajiao water town

An hour out on Metro Line 17. The closest thing to Suzhou you get without leaving Shanghai.

Canals, stone bridges, Ming and Qing lanes, and boats for hire. The Zhujiajiao 8-attraction combo ticket covers the paid sites in one go, which saves queueing at each gate separately.

Two rules decide whether this trip works. Go on a weekday, since weekends here are genuinely unpleasant. And stay past 17:00, when the day-trippers clear out, the lanterns come on over the water, and the place finally becomes what you came for.

Allow a full day once you count the travel, since Line 17 runs direct but slow.

12. Take the train to Hangzhou and West Lake

The best day trip out of Shanghai, and absurdly easy by high-speed rail.

West Lake is the romantic one, and the trick is arriving late afternoon. Walk the causeways as the light drops, watch the sun go down over the water, eat in Hangzhou, then take a late train home. Arrive in the morning and you get tour groups and flat light instead.

In Suzhou, skip the Humble Administrator’s Garden if quiet is what you want. Master of the Nets is smaller, far less visited, and better suited to two people.

If you are building a longer China trip around this, the 3-day China itinerary and the 14-day China itinerary both run through Shanghai.

Most of the romantic things to do in Shanghai below cost less than you would guess, so read the prices before you assume anything.

What to book ahead, and what you can just turn up to

This is the part that saves the trip, so read it before you book anything.

Book before you fly

• Shanghai Disneyland — entrance booths are closed, so online only, and the ticket binds to your passport
• Taian Table — weekend tables go one to two months out
• A Bund-view window table anywhere — a week ahead minimum, and say the word “window”
• Hotel couples spa — the good slots go first
• Speak Low floors two and three — reservations only

Book a day or two ahead

• Shanghai Tower, mainly to pick your sunset slot rather than to skip a queue
• A private Huangpu charter, about two weeks out if you want one
• High-speed train seats to Hangzhou or Suzhou on a weekend

Just turn up

• The Bund, both banks
• The ¥2 Huangpu ferry
• Every French Concession street on this list
• Tianzifang, Yuyuan Bazaar, Fuxing Park, M50, West Bund
• Neighbourhood massage places

Check what is refundable before you commit to dated tickets, since Shanghai weather can wreck a sunset plan. Our cancellation and refund policy sets out what is flexible.

Travelling on from here? The best things to do in China covers Beijing, Xi’an and Chengdu, and the 14-day China itinerary threads Shanghai into a longer route.

How much does a romantic Shanghai trip cost?

Per couple, per day, excluding flights and hotel. These are realistic rather than optimistic.

Where the money really goes: food and drink, not sightseeing. Two rooftop cocktails cost more than entry to Shanghai Tower. A single starred dinner costs more than everything else on a frugal day combined.

So if you want to cut costs without cutting romance, cut the restaurants rather than the experiences. Set lunch instead of dinner, the ¥2 ferry instead of the cruise, and one rooftop instead of three.

The metro is the other quiet saving. Fares run a few yuan a journey, it reaches almost everything on this list, and it is far faster than a taxi in evening traffic.

That is the honest shortlist of romantic things to do in Shanghai, and the timing notes matter as much as the prices.

Best time of year for a couples trip to Shanghai

October and November is my pick. The air is clearest, which matters enormously when you have paid for a 546-metre view, and the plane trees turn gold through November.

Avoid the first week of October entirely. That is Golden Week, the whole country travels, and every price on this page goes up while every queue doubles.

Winter has one real drawback for couples specifically: several rooftop terraces, including Sir Elly’s, close seasonally. Check before you build an evening around one.

Where to stay in Shanghai for couples

For a first romantic trip, stay on or near the Bund or in the French Concession. Both put you inside walking distance of half this list, which matters more than the room.

Amanyangyun is the outlier. It is roughly an hour from the centre, so treat it as a two-night retreat at the end of a trip rather than a base.

Places that have closed, so do not plan around them

Half the romantic Shanghai guides still online are recommending these. They are gone.

• M on the Bund and its Glamour Bar — closed February 2022
• Bar Rouge — closed, and the seventh floor is now the KEV club
• Ultraviolet — closed November 2025
• Sober Company — still trading, although it left its original Yunnan Road home, so confirm the address before you set off

I have left these in deliberately. If you have a screenshot from an old listicle saved in your phone, check it against this before you walk across the city for nothing.

A two-night romantic Shanghai itinerary

Built so you are never crossing the city twice in a day.

Night one: the Bund side

1. Late afternoon: plane-tree walk through the French Concession, finishing at Fuxing Park
2. Early evening: dinner at Sinan Mansions or a Bund window table
3. After dinner: the Bund promenade, then a drink at VUE or Sir Elly’s Terrace

Day two: Pudong and the water

1. Late afternoon: Shanghai Tower, timed 70 minutes before sunset
2. Dusk: the ¥2 ferry back across the Huangpu
3. Evening: Yuyuan Bazaar after 20:00, then Yu Garden the next morning

Day three: out of the city

1. Either Zhujiajiao on a weekday, staying past 17:00
2. Or the high-speed train to Hangzhou, arriving at West Lake late afternoon

Three nights is the minimum that does not feel rushed. Four lets you add Disneyland or a spa afternoon without cutting something else.

Romantic things to do in Shanghai: FAQs

More questions about romantic Shanghai

The bottom line

Shanghai rewards couples who plan the hours rather than the budget.

Sunset timing at the tower. After eight at Yuyuan. Past five at Zhujiajiao. Weekday rather than weekend, nearly everywhere. Get those right and the free things on this list beat the expensive ones more often than not.

Start with things to do in Shanghai for live pricing, check the current deals before booking anything dated, and have a look at the best things to do in China if Shanghai is one stop on a longer trip.

And leave one evening with nothing planned. In this city that is usually the one you talk about afterwards.