There’s a number of people offering Shanghai photography tours but this is probably one city you don’t really need a local to show you around because most of the main tourist attractions are easily reachable and known by most taxi drivers.

I prefer shooting in Shanghai over a lot of other cities. It’s got a really good mix of older traditional Chinese areas contrasting with the newer skyscrapers and new developments always happening throughout Shanghai.  The Bund is a nice area for snapshots, take your ND filters and a tripod and take some long exposures or shoot it from different angles not seen in the typical Shanghai tourist brochures.  If you want to avoid the crowds you’ll need to wake up early, real early, but that’s no different to any major city in the world really.

Unfortunately the Dongtai Road Antique Market has closed down, which is a shame because it was a great place to take some good photos.  Instead, head to Tianzifang (see it on our Map of Shanghai), a little enclave featuring arts, crafts, bars, restaurants, cafes that was developed from a traditional residential area in the French concession part of Shanghai. It’s quaint in the true sense of the word and any first time visitor to China will love it.

There’s some popular freelance photographers in Shanghai so instead of thinking about doing a Shanghai photography tour, I’d think about contacting one of the local photographers and asking them to show you around the best photo spots in Shanghai, you can offer to pay them something and I’m sure at least one of them would take you up on the offer.  You’ll also see a lot of people shooting wedding photos in Shanghai around the Bund area, so you can do your best impression of a leach and snap a few of the bride and groom.