Pudong - Shanghai
Best Time: Typical Sunset spot
Remarks: Shanghai, always nice to be here for a couple of days. The most known view is probably this one. You standing at the Bund promenade looking in the direction of Pudong. The promenade and super nice and wide all the way. There is no particular best sport, just walk around and find your perfect perspective. The only challenge for this shot is the weather/smog. Seeing the sunset doesn't happen too often. So you need definitely some luck.
GPS Location: 31°14'19.7"N 121°29'25.9"E
Bund - Shanghai
Best Time: Typical Sunset spot
Remarks: This one is shot from Pudong looking in the direction of the Bund. The photo spot is on the 112th floor of the Shanghai Tower. The observation deck is the highest in the world, 562m high. The view is just breathtaking. Little problem, it is so high that quite often the clouds are lower than you are. This leads to zero visibility. So before you pay the entrance fee, look up. If you can't see the top, you can't see anything from it. The observation deck is all indoor. So you looking through floor to ceiling windows. If you are prepared with a pole filter and some lens cover (e.g. jacket - see picture) you should get some decent shots without reflection. At least at the beginning of the sunrise. Later the Shanghai tower lightens up itself. Then it's getting tricky to avoid reflections. There is also another cool perspective to the right of this one. You have a great view of the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Finance Center. The Jin Mao Tower has very strong lights on the top. I tried my luck several times to get a decent shot but until now I'm not satisfied. There is just too much light pollution, so even if you manage to get rid of the reflections, the picture has still some kind of light flog. Tripods are allowed but try to keep it as small as possible. I just use the minimum height and try to sit next to it. Chinese tourists are sometimes a bit ruthless. In their excitement to get a flashed selfy against a glass window, they are not taken care of anybody or anything else. Meaning, you have to protect our tripod, otherwise, you won't keep the exact perspective.
GPS Location: 31°14'02.0"N 121°30'18.9"E
Soho - Shanghai
Best Time: Typical Sunset spot
Remarks: Shanghai Soho is a rather new spot. The area is still under development. It's a campus-like start-up park with some little shops and restaurants. The rest are offices for young tech companies. My original plan was to shot the building from the basement level, as shown in the little pictures. This turned out okay but not really great. There are a little waterfall and a fountain which starts every 2-3min. This destroyed the mirror effect and in addition, is it blinking in all colors. Nevertheless, I shot the whole sunset on that position but on my way back to Metro I found another cool point at the ground floor. In the post process, I decided to take this one, as I liked is much more. I went on a Sunday, so most of the offices were closed. There are not many people around which I preferred but not too many offices were lightened which I didn't like. So I might come back to try it again.
GPS Location: 31°13'17.1"N 121°21'09.8"E