Wild Shanghai: Spoonbills, Wetlands and Green Shanghai

The natural side of Shanghai, from the Chongming Dongtan wetlands at the mouth of the Yangtze, a stopover for migrating shorebirds and Shanghai’s first natural World Heritage site, to the Botanical Garden, Century Park and the Expo Culture Park, with a directory of the parks in our guide.

Shanghai is a city of towers on the delta of the Yangtze, and that delta is one of the great meeting places of the world’s migrating birds. On the eastern tip of Chongming Island, where the river meets the sea, the mudflats and reed beds of Dongtan are a wetland of international importance and a stopover for shorebirds on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway.

This is a short, honest guide to Shanghai’s natural side: the wetland at the river mouth, and the gardens and parks of the city itself. Go to Dongtan in spring or autumn with binoculars; in the city, come early, before the heat.

Chongming Dongtan

The Chongming Dongtan Nature Reserve was listed under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of international importance in 2002, on a north–south migration route where birds stop to rest and feed and some spend the winter. In spring, the district government reports rare visitors such as the black-faced spoonbill and the spoon-billed sandpiper among the flocks on the mudflats.

Gardens and parks

In the city, the Shanghai Botanical Garden in Xuhui covers 81.86 hectares and holds more than 3,500 plant species, with cherry blossom and magnolias in spring and a garden of miniature trees. In Pudong, Century Park spreads around a lake and lawns, and the Shanghai Expo Culture Park, on the site of the 2010 World Expo, has the Twin Hills, a greenhouse garden in a former steel factory and the World Flower Garden.

At the mouth of the Yangtze, Shanghai keeps a wetland of world importance for migrating birds.

Feature: a World Heritage wetland

In 2024, the migratory bird habitat at Dongtan joined UNESCO’s World Heritage List, Shanghai’s first natural World Heritage site. Its tidal flats are a vital refuelling stop for shorebirds flying between Siberia and Australasia, some of them among the rarest birds on Earth, such as the black-faced spoonbill.

Did you know? Chongming Dongtan’s migratory bird habitat became Shanghai’s first natural World Heritage site in 2024.

Our advice

Our advice: plan a full day for Chongming Dongtan in spring or autumn, check the reserve’s visitor arrangements before you go, and bring binoculars and a telephoto lens; keep to the boardwalks and never approach feeding flocks. In the city, visit the Botanical Garden in early spring for the blossom, and book the Twin Hills walk at the Expo Culture Park a day ahead.