Ditto the Untour - we did Night Markets (dumplings was sold out but a co-worker did it last year on my recommendation and loved it!)

I had a few trips to Shanghai in 2014-2015 for work and my husband came with me on my 3rd trip - his first trip to Asia -and he was really worried ahead of time, but loved it! He went with a guide the first day (he was alone for 2 days while I worked, and we hired a student friend of one of the assistants on my projects) but was confident on the subway on his own the next day. We have no Chinese language skills but still managed to do things like find the 3 story eyeglass mall and order 5 pairs of glasses

[we spent my work time at a local/Chinese business hotel but then transferred to Hyatt on the Bund for our "tourist time" - it met our hotel priorities and was a great location for us - but I have to say, the Chinese business hotel is on top of a subway stop that's super easy to access from the airport and HOTB is not ;-)]