General Information » Further Reading » Newspapers & Magazines

Shanghai’s major English-language newspaper is the Shanghai Daily, sold for RMB 2 at newspaper stands across the city. This China-friendly publication covers everything you would expect in a modern daily, with articles on local and international news, restaurant reviews and mildly mannered lifestyle reports. Similar in both style and content to Shanghai Daily is Shanghai Star, a weekly English-language newspaper owned by the national China Daily newspaper. Both publications employ a number of foreign journalists whose articles are constantly checked for any ‘unpatriotic’ references and edited accordingly.

For practicing your Mandarin reading skills you have the choice of several Chinese-language newspapers including Shanghai Jie Fang Daily, Wen Hui Bao and XinMin Evening News.

All of Shanghai’s local papers are limited when it comes to in-depth international news, but you can now buy day-old copies of the International Herald Tribune (24 RMB), USA Today (20 RMB), Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (17 RMB), Wall Street Journal (25 RMB) and the Financial Times (30 RMB) from the gift shops at most high-end hotels. For a Shanghai-centric view on the city’s business news, try the free of charge English-language Shanghai Business Review.

Several English-language entertainment magazines dominate the freebie scene. There are two free monthly mags: That’s Shanghai and Shanghai Talk, both of which contain general interest articles, ‘what’s on’ listings and useful bar & restaurant addresses and reviews. The two major weeklies are City Weekend, which likes to tackle controversial cultural issues alongside the usual reviews and listings, and SH and 8 Days, which focus more on day-to-day art, music and bar events, and have a pull-out classified section. Many of the western-style restaurants and bars carry at least one of the free publications.