Shanghai Disneyland features the largest castle in the world and a unique blend of local lore and culture incorporating 12 Chinese Zodiac elements. At The Bund you'll find newly weds posing, and a storied jazz band at the Peace Hotel, whose warbling notes have kept visitors pirouetting for decades. On Nanjing Lu, people waltz and swing. Savour Peking Opera at the imposing Shanghai Grand Theatre, while for nightlife with feasting and fun, head to the shikumen alleys of Xintiandi.

In 2010 the city hosted a splendid World Expo that transformed this metropolis with new multi-lane roadways, gardens, and pedestrian zones. The Bund has been splendidly recast and polished with grand refurbished stone buildings looking over the elevated Huangpu promenade – home to tai-chi, musicians, and wedding posers.

But it is the humble tea leaf that has found varied expression here, to attract connoisseurs from around the globe who come to sample its finest. Perhaps the best known of all is Tianshan Tea City, on Zhongshan West Road, where over 150 shops are set out in a multi-level building, selling an unimaginable variety of tea leaves and infusions. Walk through the teeming corridors, take your time, and sample the offerings. Have a sip or buy in bulk. This is a tea mecca like no other.

The Song Fang Maison de Thé is a teahouse in a charming three-storey French Concession house that dates back to 1930. It sells over 70 varieties of attractively packaged Chinese and French teas. Posh afternoon teas abound at international hotels and these will set your wallet back by Rmb200 to Rmb400. It’s a far cry from Tianshan but gleaming interiors and liveried waiters will evoke a bygone period for a moment of ecstatic transport – before the bill arrives.

At People’s Park parents gather weekends for the ‘marriage market'. Women are given the lead roles in local opera. Shanghai even has a professional baseball team. Try ‘hairy crab’ or street-style Yang’s Fried Dumplings. Later, retire to the Long Bar – once a popular bolthole for gentleman only at the Shanghai Club – now restored by the Waldorf Astoria.