Nanjing Road Route

What Nanjing Road is

Nanjing Road runs east-west from People's Square to the Bund, and it is Shanghai's foremost shopping street. Its middle stretch, "Nanjing Road East," is a pedestrian street long called "China's number-one commercial street." From the late Qing through the concession era this was the centre of Shanghai's trade and fashion, department stores and old houses lined up one after another. Traces remain: along the street sit food houses that have sold the same butterfly pastries, pan-fried buns and mooncakes for close to a century. At the eastern end is the Bund, where Western buildings from the concession years stand along the Huangpu River — the green pyramid-roofed Peace Hotel and the clock-towered Customs House the easiest to spot. From People's Square in the west to the Bund in the east, you open with old-house sweets and close with a plate by the river. That is this route.

The sweet soy taste of "benbang"

Shanghai's home and canteen cooking is called benbang cuisine, and its core is "thick oil, red sauce" — generous soy and sugar, cooked dark and sweet-savoury. Cubed pork stewed to melting (hongshaorou) and deep-fried sea bass under a sweet-and-sour glaze (squirrel-style sea bass) are its emblems. And the scent of a Shanghai autumn is osmanthus (guihua), tucked into both sweets and dishes: a pinch over the rice roll, a note in the braised pork. Once you know sweet, rich and fragrant, the plates of Nanjing Road come much closer.

How to walk this route

Start at People's Square, where Metro Lines 1, 2 and 8 meet. First buy butterfly pastries at the Park Hotel bakery — the hotel opened in 1934 and was once the tallest in Shanghai, and the pastry is its signature, with a queue even on weekdays. Then enter the Nanjing Road East pedestrian street and graze the old-house snacks: pan-fried buns, sesame shortcakes, sweet rice rolls, fresh-pork mooncakes. To settle your stomach with noodles, slot in a bowl of crab-roe noodles at Yuxingji. House numbers run from 1 at the Bund and grow larger to the west, so the route drops from the higher numbers at People's Square toward the lower ones at the Bund. Finish out on the Bund with osmanthus braised pork and squirrel-style sea bass, the river and the concession facades in view. Reckon about three hours on foot — snacks as you walk, proper dishes sitting down.

What to look for

The stars of the walk are the old-house snacks clustered on Nanjing Road East. Dahuchun's pan-fried buns are the "no-soup" school, a thick skin soaking up the juices — one Shanghai lineage of the dish. Lailai's crab xiaolongbao are so generous with crab the skin glows orange when you open it. Taikang's "crab-shell yellow" has no crab despite the name; it is a sesame shortcake, a Shanghai breakfast regular. On the sweet side, Shen Da Cheng's rice rolls and Zhen Lao Da Fang's fresh-pork mooncakes, baked year-round and not just at Mid-Autumn. Then the finish on the Bund: at Hugongguan the squirrel-style sea bass is fried to order and crackles the instant the sweet-and-sour glaze hits. Add the osmanthus braised pork at Waitan Jiayan and the eating of Nanjing Road runs in one line, from street snack to full benbang.

Before you go

Nanjing Road East is packed with visitors, and on holidays and the long breaks (National Day, Chinese New Year) it can be hard just to walk. Old-house sweets sometimes sell out by early afternoon, so aim for the morning. Payment is mostly electronic, though small old shops may still need cash. The Bund restaurants are popular and often mean a wait, so go off-peak or book. Hours change, so treat the times here as a guide and confirm on the spot.