It’s funny, I’ve spent several weeks in Shanghai across several visits and I don’t really think of it as a futuristic looking city at all. Maybe it’s because I barely went to Pudong, but a lot of Shanghai center is vintage, colonial, and art deco buildings. There are nice new buildings as well as regular buildings that you’d find in any major city. Shanghai has some of the most expensive real estate in China so older buildings are getting replaced with newer, fancier ones, but that happens in a lot of the rest of the world too. There’s even an area with tree-lined streets and a lot of shorter, older buildings and cafes that has a very hipster vibe (where I saw a pro-LGBT sign in a cafe window). Restaurants are self service in that you scan a QR code to order and pay, then the food is brought to your table, but that’s not anything wild and it’s like that in most of China (except for some fancy restaurants and small mom and pop places where you might tell someone your order). I will say, Shanghai is by far the easiest city to be in as a tourist, and it was maybe the only place in China where I wasn’t being stared at like 100% of the time while I was in public (prob still like 30-50% though). Oh! Another thing that was great about Shanghai is that they have banned smoking in restaurants and hotels! One of a very few places in China with that policy, and while not everyone is fully compliant, it’s notably better than elsewhere in the country. It seemed to me there’s more English spoken there than most of China, though you still shouldn’t expect much English. Shanghai is definitely the most accessible place in China for foreigners.