When do the Bund and Lujiazui lights come on, and when do they go off?

The city's greening and sanitation bureau switches on the Bund, North Bund and Lujiazui skyline lights every night from a central control room. It has not published a year-round timetable. Its last seasonal notice in the public-announcements section is dated 29 April 2024 (19:00-23:00 daily from 6 May to 30 September 2024); the previous one is dated 25 September 2023 (18:00-22:00 daily from 7 October 2023 to 30 April 2024). Since then, only holiday 'major event mode' notices have appeared, on the bureau's WeChat official account and in media reports. Summer 19:00-23:00 and winter 18:00-22:00 are the recent pattern, with no current timetable to confirm them.

The 2024 notice allows the bureau to adjust lighting and switching times for severe-weather warnings and power-load management. In August 2022, the riverfront went dark during the power crunch. The same notice gives different closing times: 23:00 for core areas, 22:30 for the Suzhou Creek banks and city-level shopping districts.

Holidays run longer, by dated notice each time: recent New Year, Chinese New Year and May Day notices switched the lights on at 18:00 and off at 22:30-23:00, with New Year's Eve running past midnight; in 'major event mode' the riverside media facades also show themed images on the hour and half hour. Expect the same on National Day week, but go by that holiday's official notice. Laser and beam effects are separate, short-dated district events.

For the view itself: the Bund promenade for the Pudong towers, Binjiang Avenue or the 2-yuan ferry for the Bund facade. Both are free; both are best in the first hour after the lights come on and again in the last half-hour before they go off, when the crowds have gone. If a holiday or a heat wave is in play, check 上海发布 or 绿色上海 on WeChat for that day's notice.