In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’ve compiled a list of Shanghai’s most romantic spots. Here they are in no particular order for your perusing pleasure:

Lovers’ Wall

What many expats don’t know about the Bund it that it was once home to a chest-high flood-prevention wall, which was a sanctuary for sweethearts across the city in the ’80s. Each night, lovers would pack the section between Yan’an Lu and Beijing Lu and shamelessly neck for hours on end. “Young lovers didn’t have many places to meet back then,” says historian Tess Johnston. “Everyone lived in cramped conditions; there was no privacy for anyone and parks closed early. So the Lovers’ Wall gave a nice view, somewhere to stroll and a little privacy―at least from conservative parents.”

Despite efforts to preserve the wall and its lovey-dovey history, it was knocked down in the ’90s to build a more efficient wall. Nonetheless, ask any Shanghainese baby boomer what the most romantic spot in the city is, and they’ll point you right toward the Bund.

Paramount Ballroom

Today, visit Paramount’s upper floors on a Saturday night and you’ll dismiss it as another nightclub. The first storey, however, houses an undisputed center of Shanghai’s ballroom culture. Opened in 1933 and located at the edge of the International Settlement, it quickly became the quintessential meeting place between East and West.

They say it’s where “China learned to dance,” says Andrew Field, author of Shanghai’s Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics, 1919-1954. “A top ballroom, Paramount attracted mob bosses, city officials, celebrities ... Even Charlie Chaplin paid a visit.”

Even after a lengthy closure during the Cultural Revolution, the Gate of a Hundred Pleasures, as Paramount is auspiciously known in Chinese, remains a hotbed of old-fashioned romance. Those who enjoy the ballroom’s singles scene are middle-aged and probably better dancers than most, but professional partners are available if you need help easing into an arabesque.

The Marriage Market

Nowhere in Shanghai has as much romantic hope in the air as this bizarre bazaar in People’s Park, where the wares being hawked are the children of parents looking to find a suitable son- or daughter-in-law. Every weekend, thousands of posters are strung up between trees advertising young singles, like this one: “Male. Born 1980. 1.8m. Master’s degree. Shanghainese. Working in Fortune 500 Company, looking for someone born between 1974 and 1982, bachelor’s degree or above.”

The success rate is notoriously low, but the market still swarms with hopefuls. Check out the most traditional matchmaking institution around on Saturdays, rain or shine.

Hengshan Community Church

Built in 1925 and now the city’s largest Christian church, this church helped launch many a Shanghai marriage. The building hosts up to three weddings per day, with each wedding party being allocated just 20 minutes to tie the knot while the next waits impatiently outside.

While foreigners typically prefer to wed in their home country, the Shanghai Community Fellowship performs expat weddings thoughout the year there. As Administrator Eileen Hsu pitches it, “To have a wedding in a church is a testament to God’s love towards us and a witness to His love.”

IKEA

What? Really? Yes. Senior citizens get lonely just like the rest of us, but most don’t think it’s appropriate or cost-effective to cruise the singles scene in clubs or speed date. So they go to IKEA. Since the Swedish furniture giant began offering free coffee to holders of their family membership cards, anywhere from 70 to 700 Shanghai old timers have flocked to the Xuhui branch every weekend to meet someone special.

With a homey environment and a management team whose will to evict freeloaders can’t match culturally instilled respect for their elders, IKEA is the city’s hottest singles scene for the over-60 set. So, if it’s geriatric love you seek, join the growing throngs of fearless seniors at IKEA.

Shanghai Film Park

Not only is this sprawling collection of regularly-used film sets fun to explore, with its replicas of a ’30s Nanjing Dong Lu and a European courtyard, it also attracts couples in droves. Romantic favorites Perhaps Love, The Music Box and 2046 were all filmed here, but it’s the old Shanghai streets that have as many as ten couples a day hiring the park’s on-site photographers for romantic snaps.

The Park also provides makeup artists and 200,000 classical costumes for couples and wedding parties wanting professional shots taken while they’re dolled up like movie stars. Immersed in the nostalgic whimsy that accompanies thinking you’ve stepped out of a time machine, it’s impossible not to feel you’ve been swept up in a dream made for two.

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