Everyone photographs the Shanghai skyline from across the river. Fair enough, it is a remarkable skyline. But the buildings I keep coming back to are the ones on the near bank, put up in the 1920s and 1930s, when the city was one of the most cosmopolitan places on earth and architects were doing whatever they liked.

Shanghai has, by most counts, one of the biggest surviving concentrations of art deco architecture in the world. Second only to New York in some surveys. You can walk a good stretch of it in an afternoon without paying a single entrance fee.

Start at the Bund, but look up

The Bund waterfront takes its name from the embankment itself, and the row of buildings facing the river is the obvious starting point. Most people walk along the water and look out at Pudong. Do that for five minutes, then turn around and look at what is behind you.

The Peace Hotel, at the north end, is the one to start with. The green pyramid roof is the landmark, but the ground floor interiors are the real event, all geometric patterns and warm wood, heavy on the deco detailing. You can walk in and look at the lobby area without being a guest. I did, on a weekday morning, and nobody minded.

Further along, the Bank of China building and the old HSBC headquarters show the earlier, more classical phase. The shift from that to the sharper geometry of the 1930s is visible if you walk the row in order, which is a nice way to spend forty minutes.

The details to watch for

• Stepped setbacks on the upper floors of the taller buildings, the classic deco silhouette.
• Metal grilles and lift doors with fan and chevron patterns.
• Stone carvings around doorways that use plants and geometry rather than the classical orders.
• Windows that get narrower as the building rises, drawing the eye up.

Inland to the old French Concession

When you have had enough of the Bund, head west into the former French Concession. This is where the art deco goes residential, and I find it more interesting than the grand commercial stuff on the waterfront.

The area around Wukang Road is the best single street for this. The Wukang Mansion, a flat iron shaped building on the fork of five roads, is the star, and it is worth standing on the traffic island opposite for a few minutes to take it in. The building has a slightly shabby dignity that the restored towers on the Bund do not.

From there, walk the plane tree lined streets toward Fuxing Park. The apartment blocks along the way are mostly still lived in, which is the point. This is not a museum district. Someone is hanging laundry out of a 1930s window while a delivery rider waits downstairs, and that combination is the actual texture of the city.

Good stopping points

Anfu Road and Wuyuan Road have a dense cluster of small cafes and independent shops in old buildings. Prices are higher here than elsewhere in the city, but the setting is hard to beat. I usually stop somewhere on Anfu Road for an hour and watch the neighbourhood go by.

The Former Residence of Soong Ching-ling is nearby if you want an interior view of how these houses were laid out. Small entrance fee, quiet garden, worth half an hour.

Doing it comfortably

The full route, Bund to Fuxing Park, is about 6 km if you take it slowly and detour a bit. Two to three hours including stops. It is flat the whole way and the pavements are wide, so it is easy walking.

Best time is a weekday morning, or late afternoon into early evening when the light comes in low between the buildings. Weekends on the Bund waterfront are extremely busy, though the side streets stay calm.

Metro access is easy at both ends. East Nanjing Road station for the Bund, and Shanghai Library or Changshu Road for the French Concession end.

A note on looking

You do not need a guide or a ticket for any of this. What you need is patience and a willingness to look up. The art deco in Shanghai is not concentrated in one preserved street. It is spread through a living city, mixed in with everything else, and half the pleasure is spotting it while going about an ordinary day.

Take a slow walk, stop for coffee, and keep your eyes above shopfront level. That is the whole method.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.