Shopping. Shopping. And more shopping! Clothes, furniture, knick knacks and household goods. You name it, you can find it—or have it made just how you want it—in Shanghai. In terms of clothing, Shanghai has a couple of enormous malls that popular brands like the Gap, C&A, H&M, Zara, Next, American Eagle and all the luxury brands. Most shops don’t regularly carry sizes over US14 however, and some complain that the pant cut isn’t made for Western hips. That’s where the fabric markets come in handy. You can take your favorite item of clothing and have it copied with fabric you picked out or bring in a picture from a magazine and have them tailor it just for you. For babies and children there are chains like Mothercare and Toys are Us as well as small boutique stores all over the city and a baby items market; you can get baby furniture crafted for your little ones as well.

Shoes are another story. While there are shoe markets, where they’ll craft a pair from scratch for you, they aren’t all that frequented by foreigners. Shoes on store shelves tend to be fairly slim and sizes larger than a 7 women’s and 11 men’s are hard to come by. Bring essentials from home.

There are various fake markets scattered around the city where you’ll need to bargain hard for items you want. For household items there are stores like Ikea, JYSK, the kitchen supplies market, and tons of made-to-order furniture markets—bring a picture or a sketch and dimensions with you to get that perfect piece. Carrefour and Metro also carry small household and kitchen electronics. The Apple Store (yes, the real one) in Lujiazui sells and repair all things Apple and there’s an electronics market for everything else.