Local Guide to China routes

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  Walking Shanghai Like a Local: Lanes, Shade and One Loop

  Shanghai rewards walking, but not along the river. The Bund is a skyline you look at; the lanes west of it are a city you walk through. Visitors who treat the two as one stop usually end up with photographed shop fronts and no sense of the neighbourhood scale. Here is how to walk the lanes the way residents do.

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  Chongqing: How to Find the Shops Locals Actually Eat In

  Chongqing does not hide its good food. It puts it on slopes, in backstreets, and behind doors with no English on them — places a visitor walks straight past because they look closed. The trick is not a list of addresses. It is learning to read the street.