Any tips for shooting city centre landscapes at dusk/night.?

I have a Canon D600 and the stock 18-55IS lens that came with it. I was in downtown Shanghai last night and there were some beautiful moody clouds above and behind the skyscrapers as the sun set and the buildings were gradually being illuminated.

As it got darker I found the auto exposure lengthening and the images blurring so tried using my mini tripod which stopped almost all the blurring but there was a lot of flaring from some of the neon lights on the buildings.

I'd really like to try and capture some decent, in focus shots while I'm here.

Any quick tips/pointers greatly appreciated

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