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Sort your payments and data in Shanghai before you head inland
This is the easiest city in the mainland to get set up in: staff are used to foreign cards, most counters can explain themselves in English, and there is a fallback within walking distance when something does not work. Use the first day to link a card in Alipay or WeChat Pay, add the metro QR, buy the data package you plan to use, and test all three on something small. Doing this in Shanghai takes an hour. Doing it for the first time in a small city takes a day and a lot of pointing.
Stay in the Former French Concession and give the Bund one evening
The skyline is worth an hour at dusk, and hotels beside it charge for the privilege of being there. The city you will actually enjoy walking is the Concession: plane trees, lane houses, coffee, and a metro station every few blocks. Base yourself around Wukang Road or Jing'an, walk to the Bund after dinner, cross the river for the reverse view, and come back. Zhujiajiao and Suzhou both work as half-day escapes from the same base.