Shanghai superstars


DESTINATIONS CHINA | ASIA


China has finally scrapped Covid testing for visitors. Laura Millar gets reacquainted with the country’s biggest city


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Nanjing Road shopping district PICTURE: Shutterstock/Luciano Mortula


travelweekly.co.uk


t’s Wednesday afternoon on Shanghai’s Nanjing Road and the city’s shoppers are out in force. Cartoon-like displays


adorn the windows of Louis Vuitton, while the gold-striped frontage of Prada juts out into the street and Gucci’s mirrored facade reflects hurrying crowds of locals. Still missing, however, are the faces of foreign visitors in any significant number. China closed its borders to foreign


travellers until March 2023 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and finally removed the requirement for pre-departure testing on August 30. Visitor numbers are starting to creep up, encouraged by the return of direct flights. Virgin Atlantic resumed its direct flight


from Heathrow in May. The company’s chief commercial officer, Juha Jarvinen, says: “There has been so much pent-up demand for this route since we had to stop flying


it on February 1, 2020. It’s an attractive city for British visitors, with a lot of history, a great restaurant scene and beautiful areas such as the French Concession.” Fortified by a Cantonese-style lunch of stir-fried lobster at stylish Sense 8, I explore the French Concession on the first afternoon of my visit – before the testing policy is relaxed. I hop into a vintage Jeep with Thomas, a French expat and founder of Shanghai Insiders tours. “During the pandemic our business had to close,” he tells me as we navigate wide, shaded boulevards overhung by leafy plane trees, “but we are slowly, slowly starting to see tourists coming back.” We trundle past low-level, French-era buildings (France established this part of Shanghai as a territorial lease in 1849), including bakeries, cafes and concept stores, before stopping to peek around the former French Club.


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