A vital source of English-language information about current events in the city is the excellent and free expatriate-run monthly Shanghai Pictorial, available at most hotels and upmarket restaurants. Shanghai Talk is another good periodical offering frank advice on the latest happenings. The tourist bureau publishes the English-language newspapers, Travel China: Shanghai Edition and Shanghai Today, both with a heavier emphasis on current events articles and less emphasis on restaurant and nightlife listings.

Various glossy English-language maps are also available, with clear information on streets and sights - including the Shanghai Official Tourist Map, which is paid for by advertising and is issued free in hotels and in the Renmin Square subway station. Additionally, bus routes can be found on the Shanghai Communications Map, though this map has street names in Chinese only. English maps are available in the large hotels, bookshops and the tourist kiosk at the north end of the Renmin Square subway station. Street vendors all over town sell Chinese maps.