Escape the hustle and bustle of Shanghai and embark on a one-day private tour of Suzhou—no need to plan your own itinerary. Explore one of Suzhou’s UNESCO World Heritage classical gardens and visit Tiger Hill, a must-see for the region’s cultural heritage. Then, wander through Tongli or Zhouzhuang, one of China’s most beautiful water towns. Enjoy a relaxed pace, avoid crowds, and customize your trip to your liking.
Tour Highlights
- Choose your favorite garden to visit, from among the Master of the Nets Garden, the Lingering Garden, and the Lion Grove Garden.
- Feel Jiangnan charm of optional Tongli or Zhouzhuang water town.
- Hotel transfer service are included from Shanghai downtown.
- Flexiable tour arrangement that suits your needs.
The Design of the Day Trip
- Guide: better than a normal licensed tour guide; friendly and helpful with fluent English.
- Driver: reliable licensed local driver with at least 5 years' driving experience.
- Vehicle: Air-conditioned business car (max: 7 seats) with GPS facilities, big windows, and ample space.
- Professional product team analysis on every part of the trip to ensure a smooth and enjoyable travel experience.
Detailed Itinerary
The tour guide will contact you through hotel or leave a message for you regarding the exact pickup time the night before tour.
Good to Know:
- Please leave your WhatsApp information when make the booking. You can WhatsApp me at +86-18807734970 in case you need to reach us.
- The hotel pick-up and drop-off area should be within the middle ring road of Shanghai. For further distance there might be an extra cost for the transfer. Your travel advisor will give you a notification about this.
Your guide will be waiting for you in the lobby in the morning at around 8:00 AM. A comfortable car will transfer you and your guide to Suzhou city about 2 hours.
First, you can choose to visit one of three classic gardens in Suzhou: Master of the Nets Garden (highly recommended), Lingering Garden, or Lion Grove Garden.
The Master of the Nets Garden is especially popular with overseas tourists and is hailed as the most exquisite and best-preserved private garden in Suzhou. Different from the larger, bustling gardens, this UNESCO World Heritage site offers a serene and personal experience where you can truly connect with the elegance of classical Chinese garden design.
Then we head to Tiger Hill, also known as Surging Sea Hill, which is a famous scenic area in Suzhou, attracting visitors with a number of historical sites and its natural beauty.
We'll explore serene gardens, hidden courtyards, and a mysterious 2,500-year-old tomb believed to hold the king of the Wu Kingdom. The famous Yunyan Pagoda, tilting gracefully for centuries, offers a picture-perfect moment you won’t find anywhere else. Whether you're looking for history, romance, or the perfect photo, Tiger Hill has it all.
Next, we will transfer to visit a water town, you can choose one from Tongli or Zhouzhuang water town. Zhouzhuang is most recommended. Zhouzhuang is built amid canals, ponds, and lakes. There are many old buildings and bridges, boat rides, crafts, framed by the quaint water town scenery. Feel free to take many photos and capture the beautiful views as seen in "Shanghai Triad".
You are recommended to take a gondola and witness the way of life of people living by the canals, first hand. This medieval water town has a history dating back more than 900 years, and has houses and bridges built in both the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing dynasties (1644–1911).
We will transfer you to your hotel at the end of the tour. Going back to your hotel in Shanghai will normally take about 2 hours.
Know Before You Book
Price Includes:
- Entrance fee - Tiger Hill; choose one from Master of the Nets Garden, Lingering Garden or Lion Grove Garden; choose one from Zhouzhuang or Tongli.
- Transport between attractions, including pickup and return to your Shanghai hotel.
- English-speaking local guide service.
Price Excludes:
- A gondola tour in the Water Town.
- Lunch fee.
- Tipping of guide & driver recommended on good service on a 2:1 ratio separately (usually 50-100 RMB per person).
FAQs About This Tour
The hotel pick-up and drop-off area should be within the middle ring road of Shanghai. For further distance there might be an extra cost for the transfer. Your travel advisor will give you a notification about this.
The hotel pick-up and drop-off area
- If we are not able to implement the contract due to war, flood, typhoon, fire, strikes, storm, earthquake, or any other condition we are not able to foresee and avoid, we will inform customers at the first possible opportunity and offer the best possible solutions, and the final bill shall be settled based on the service we actually provide.
- Up to 7 days before departure: 100% refund of all money paid, excluding penalties charged by hotels, railways, airlines, and PayPal, if applicable. All penalties will be itemized.
- From 3 to 7 days before departure: 90% refund, excluding penalties charged by hotels, railways, airlines, and PayPal, if applicable. All penalties will be itemized.
- Within 3 days before departure: no refund.
- After the trip has commenced, we are unable to refund any amount for cancelled services due to non-participation, early departure, late arrival, or missed days on tours.
- For groups of more than 10 people: The terms for cancellation may vary from case to case. Please ask your travel advisor regarding the cancellation policy for your group.
What Makes Us Different
China Highlights prides itself on offering and conducting the best and most enjoyable, informative, convenient and comfortable tours in and around the beautiful, historical and vibrant city of Shanghai. We feel a professional obligation to conduct research and constantly monitor feedback and constructive criticism from our previous customers' visits to favorite spots and the best sites to take photos. We also work out the best routes to cover Shanghai's top sights:
In Zhouzhuang: You will take a gondola and see for yourself the hustle and bustle of life of the people living by the canals, often colourful and very interesting as you glide by.
At Lunch Restaurant : We will take you to our designated restaurant by the side of water way, have some nicely made local food on the second floor where you could view the best part of water village.
We are the 1st China on-line travel agent that promise No-shopping policy while many other tour group have to spent much time and money in the tourist shops so that they can own more commissions!
Our tour guides are friendly, knowledgeable, and well-trained. They only work for China Highlights / Trippest. We don't use freelance tour guides in Shanghai.
Unlike some other online travel agents who sell tour products made by local travel agents, we built our own branch company in Shanghai in 2010, and since then we have started to make our own unique products. We aim to deliver a high-value tour to every one of our customers. We have more than 50 local staff in Shanghai to solve your problems on the spot.
China Highlights / Trippst Shanghai Office: +86-18807734970 (24/7 customer service)
Mobile: +86 18807734970
WeChat: trippest666
Email: niko@trippest.com
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