First published on 9 Nov 2011. Updated on 15 Feb 2012.
If you’re bored with dinners, romantic spa treatments or couples’ classes, we’ve come up with five alternative ways to get romantic around Shanghai including retro roller discos, old school fairgrounds and swimming with sharks
While Happy Valley is the theme park of choice for thrill seekers, Jinjiang Amusement Park (pictured above) has the edge for romance on account of its 108-metre ferris wheel and old school fairground feel.
Though there’s a basic corkscrew rollercoaster, 4D Theatre and reverse bungee, Shanghai’s oldest theme park (built in 1984) is all about more sedate (and romantic) activities – teacups, goldfish fishing, and boat rides in ‘Joy Land’.
The view from the top of the ferris wheel, which takes 20-25 minutes to rotate, is one of the best in town, stretching from Sheshan to Pudong on a clear day.
Jinjiang Amusement Park 201 Hongmei Lu, near Meilong Lu. See full address details
Changfeng Ocean World is home to a whopping nine species of shark. Black tip reefs, hammerheads and two-metre grey noses, the biggest of the bunch, glide peacefully with playful coral fish, majestic sea turtles, spotted eagle rays and batfish. And if you want a date to remember, you can swim eye-to-eye with them all on a 30-minute dive.
Though you’re in an aquarium, with onlookers watching you through the glass windows, it’s a peaceful, almost euphoric experience – especially as you’re in the midst of more big creatures than you ever would be in the sea. For extra thrills, go around 3pm and watch the instructors spear-feed the grey nose sharks.
Scuba novices are welcome, as are children, and if you go as a couple you’ll each get a 200RMB discount. Instructors are friendly and professional, with basic English language and plenty of support for nervous swimmers.
Love tokens come in the form of shark teeth, which you rake yourself from the tank bed five metres down (be careful, though, they can pierce human skin).
Swimming with sharks available 1-4pm daily. Entry 800RMB/person or 1,200RMB/couple.
Big Blue Scuba Changfeng Ocean World, Changfeng Park, 451 Daduhe Lu, near Jinshajiang Lu, Putuo district (6233 8888). Metro: Jinshajiang Lu. 普陀区大渡河路451号, 近金沙江路
Take a bath at Yundu
While Shanghai’s bathhouses are generally single-sex affairs, the ground floor of Yundu hotel in Minhang district features surprisingly civilised mixed ‘hot springs’ pools that make for a great winter mini-retreat.
After getting your kit off, there’s a small Jacuzzi pool, steam room and sauna in the single-sex changing area. But the real fun comes when you get kitted out in the surprisingly tasteful swimwear they provide (you can bring your own) and make your way into the swimming area. Here, around an 18-metre swimming pool, are a series of hot pools under dark wood cabanas, as well as two pretty private rooms with hot pools which can be hired for 50RMB/hour.
If you don’t want to splurge on that, there’s an outdoor pool submerged in a rockery and a blissful saltwater pool where you can lie on the surface of the water with the assistance of small floats.
Though the tourist videos at the end of the pool and the regular singers in the mezzanine restaurant add a tacky element (this is China), Yundu is largely a civilised, relaxing and possibly romantic experience. Afterwards, you can get massages galore, play pool for free or eat at the mediocre buffet (48RMB).
Yundu, 266 Huqingping Highway, near Hanghua Xincun. See full Yundu address details
See more in our best bathouses feature
The Xinxiang roller skating rink in Putuo district is the city’s original and biggest roller disco. It’s packed every night of the week with a young local crowd, making for a hectic, down-at-heel date. For just 18RMB plus 5RMB for skate hire, you get a pair of old-school brown skates with which to roll around the basketball court-sized rink and, if you trust your balance, into the bar and disco area, where Tsingtaos go for 10RMB and hordes dance manically to amped-up and raucous techno. There’s something endearingly raw and innocent about this place.
Xinxiang Gunzhou 136 Lanxi Lu, near Tangpu Lu, Putuo district (6297 1209). Open 7pm-1am daily. Metro: Fengqiao Lu. 普陀区兰溪路136号,近枣阳路 Entry 18RMB/person.
Shanghai is full of great spots for a romantic walk, but we’d recommend the following three. Tianai Lu, or Lover’s Lane, in Hongkou district (Tianai Lu, near Sichuan Bei Lu, Hongkou district. Hongkou Stadium) is the place to wander around on Valentine’s Day, where young local couples look at walls adorned with well-chosen love poems and aphorisms from the likes of Shakespeare, Pushkin, Shelley and WB Yeats.
The Ye Gardens, in the grounds of the Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital near Jiangwan Stadium, are the best of Shanghai’s hospital gardens, with willow-fringed ponds, rockeries and elegant pagodas, all in a state of evocatively romantic decay.
Finally, the beautiful Sheshan Cathedral (Entry 30RMB) sits on Shanghai’s highest point (99 metres) and has been looming large over the city since 1863. Rumour has it that the Virgin Mary visited in 1980, so it should be good enough for even the most hard-to-please date.
By Time Out editors