9 Shanghai small but worthy Instagram accounts you must follow

As westerner students/expats, Instagram is for us one of our best source of inspiration and it’s more and more becoming our kind of “travel guide” when we want to discover new things to do in our adoption city – Shanghai. Here is a list of the 9 Shanghai small but worthy Instagram accounts you must follow if you want to look at Shanghai with a new eye.

The light player @i_013

All is about light in this account! @i_013 plays perfectly with the city’s lights and makes us discover shanghai on its brightest side! Portraits, urban landscapes, drone’s pictures… His work is very diverse and worthy!

https://www.instagram.com/i_013/

the most authentic @local.shanghai

@Local.shanghai offer us “a photo journal of the local part of shanghai before it disappears”… You can discover pictures of small streets of shanghai, of markets, of traditional shops, and of old people walking around… This account is for people who want to see the real Shanghai. The Shanghai city you can observe when you take a walk on a sunny Sunday.

https://www.instagram.com/local.shanghai/

the KOL photographer @shanghai_xiaoshen

But what is KOL? This is the abbreviation for Key Opinion Leader, what we (westerners) call influencers. If you go to the Bund for a little walk, you can spot some of those KOLs approximately every 30 meters. They are everywhere! And they are usually accompanied by a little (professional look alike) team composed of one stylist, one hair dresser, one make up artist, one assistant and of course one photographer to catch the best pictures that KOLs will then share on all their Chinese social medias. @shanghai_xiaoshen is one of those photographer. You will find on his account a lot of very good KOLs portraits and this is a good way to discover new KOLs. That is perfect of you are looking for brand ambassadors for your company or you marketing class project.

https://www.instagram.com/shanghai_xiaoshen/

the best drone pictures @Shallwe0317

If you do love drone photography, then you’d better follow @shallwe0317! He takes the best air pictures of Shanghai, letting us discover the city in a very new angle.

https://www.instagram.com/shallwe0317/

the professional fashion beauty photographer @maximvdnphoto

Former student of the French Business School Essca, Maxim discovered shanghai during his study and decided to stay in China after that to follow his dream of becoming professional photographer… And he is succeeding! On his Instagram account you can find a lot of his work for fashion magazines, some film portraits, and some collaborations with Chinese brands… He works mainly (but not only) with Asian model and the result is amazing!

https://www.instagram.com/maximvdnphoto/

the lifestyle blogger @maxieissuper

As Instagram is really not the most popular platform for Chinese people, they are quite few Chinese bloggers sharing content on Instagram. But @maxieissuper is one of those! As a lifestyle blogger, she daily shares content about beauty products, fashion brands, good restaurants, events and nice places to hangout in shanghai.

https://www.instagram.com/maxieissuper/

the coffee addict @shanghaicooffeedaily

If you are a coffee addict, run fast to follow @shanghaicooffeedaily. This great account shares every single day new places to have a good coffee. This is the account you need to follow if you are looking for some coffee inspiration!

https://www.instagram.com/shanghaicoffeedaily/

the traveller inspiration @terrafoodtravel

Ana from @terrafoodtravel has been expatriated from Portugal to Shanghai for 2 years. Even if she loves Shanghai, on her free time, she loves traveling and discovering amazing places all around China. She shares frequently her stunning adventure through beautiful Instagram photos. As an insta-traveler she tries to spread authenticity with “true living moment” pictures instead of sharing pictures of a perfect but unnecessary floating breakfast basket as you can often see on Instagram traveller accounts.