The native language of locals, Shanghainese, is part of the Wu group of Chinese languages, which is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin, Cantonese, Minnan (Taiwanese/Hokkien) or any other forms of Chinese. However, Shanghai, being the biggest city and main commercial centre in China, is now home to many migrant workers from other parts of China who do not speak Shanghainese, and as with elsewhere in China, Mandarin is the lingua franca. As Shanghai has been China's main commercial centre since the 1920's, almost all locals are bilingual in Shanghainese and Mandarin, so unless you approach someone really old, you will have no problems speaking Mandarin to locals. Nevertheless, attempts to speak Shanghainese are appreciated, and will help endear you to the locals.
While you are more likely to encounter an English speaker in Shanghai than in any other mainland Chinese city, they are still not common so it would be wise to have your destinations and hotel address written in Chinese so that taxi drivers can take you to your intended destination. Though most younger people will have studied English in school, due to a lack of practice, few are conversant. Likewise, if you are planning to bargain at shops, a calculator would be useful.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Shanghai
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Shanghai - updated Apr 2024
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Shanghai Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
