Design by the Waterfront: MAISON SHANGHAI at the Expo Centre
Each September, MAISON SHANGHAI (Modern Shanghai Design Week) turns the Pudong Expo Centre into a calm, curated stage for furniture, lighting and the art of living well — a traveller's window into how the city actually designs.
By Shanghai Welcome ·
A design capital, for one week
From September 7 to 10, 2026, MAISON SHANGHAI — the city's signature design week — returns to the Shanghai Expo Centre on the Pudong waterfront. Rather than a trade-only crush, it reads as a composed survey of contemporary living: furniture, lighting, textiles and the quieter craft of making a space feel considered.
For a visitor, the appeal is the access. Studios and makers that are usually behind appointment-only doors open their work to a public that cares about how things are made. It is a chance to see where Shanghai's taste is heading, not where it has been.
- •September 7–10, 2026, at the Shanghai Expo Centre (世博展览馆)
- •Furniture, lighting and living design under one roof
- •Studios usually behind closed doors open for the week
- •A read on where the city's taste is heading
Why it suits a considered traveller
Design week rewards slow looking. A single chair can carry an hour of conversation about timber, joinery and restraint — and the best visitors come for exactly that, not for a checklist. The Expo Centre's halls are spacious and unhurried, a relief from the city's busier attractions.
Pair the fair with the Pudong waterfront itself: a walk along the river, then up into the towers that define the skyline. The contrast — handmade craft at ground level, engineered ambition overhead — is the truest portrait of modern Shanghai you can collect in an afternoon.
- •Spacious, unhurried halls built for slow looking
- •Craft and material stories, not a sales floor
- •Steps from the Pudong riverfront walk
- •Ground-level craft against skyline ambition
Your private guide meets you at the Expo Centre, frames the design week highlights, then leads a composed Pudong afternoon — riverfront, towers and the city's forward edge. All-inclusive private vehicle, guide, admissions and bottled water.
Explore Shanghai: Modern Meets Future →Build the day around it
Arrive mid-morning, when the halls are calm and the light through the waterfront glazing is at its best. Take a long lunch at a Pudong restaurant with a view, then step into Lujiazui for the afternoon — the financial district's towers are the other half of the design story.
Save the evening for the Bund, across the river, where the same skyline you saw by day becomes a lit backdrop to dinner. A private car ties the loop together so the only thing you manage is your own attention.
- •Mid-morning arrival for calm, well-lit halls
- •Pudong river-view lunch between the fair and the towers
- •An afternoon in Lujiazui's financial district
- •A Bund dinner with the skyline as backdrop
Practical, the refined way
Tickets are sold per session; your concierge or guide can secure them and plan the route so you are never crossing the expo halls twice. Allow three to four hours if you want to do the fair justice rather than skim it.
The Expo Centre sits on the Pudong waterfront, a short private-car ride from Lujiazui and roughly half an hour from the French Concession. Go by car — it keeps the day composed and spares you the walk in the September humidity.
- •Session tickets — secure them ahead via concierge or guide
- •Allow 3–4 hours to do the fair justice
- •Short drive from Lujiazui, ~30 minutes from the Concession
- •Travel by private car through the September humidity
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