View Shanghai in three ways in one day:
- From a super-tall skyscraper: Skip the lines at the amazing World Financial Center and view shanghai from on high.
- By ancient waterway: Take a sculling boat through Zhujiajiao Water Village.
- Walking between past and future: Wander along the unique bund and discover the old and new faces of Shanghai’s colonial and 21st century buildings.
A visit to "Oriental Venice" — Zhujiajiao Water Village to experience old Shanghai.
A freshly-cooked lunch overlooking a Zhujiajiao waterway.
Fields of yellow rapeseed flowers at a water village (in the spring).
A unique walk along the bund discovering the old and new face of 17 most representative buildings with an expert introduction.
A view of all the great buildings of Shanghai from the 55-meter-long skywalk on the 100th floor of the World Financial Center.
There is free drinking water and more at the China Highlights Refreshments Kiosk.
Go beyond surface appearances with insider narration on attractions.
Video and six files of information to help you discover the hidden gems of Shanghai.
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 (at least one vacant seat guaranteed)
China Highlights Shanghai Office: English-speaking backup support — We are very happy to hear your voice
Professional product team analysis on every part of the trip to ensure a smooth and enjoyable travel experience.
Your Guide
Your China Highlights guide will call you between 7:00 and 8:00 PM to confirm your departure time. If you don’t answer, your guide will leave a message for you at the front desk. If you’ve received neither a message nor a call after 8:00 PM, contact the China Highlights Shanghai Office on 13910694045. We will solve your problems on the spot.
On the morning of your tour, your guide will be waiting for you in the lobby at around 8:30 AM – 9:00 AM (unless you arrange a different time), holding a placard with the China Highlights logo and your name on it. Show our confirmation letter and you will be guided to our vehicle.
Our vehicles are “business class” with a China Highlights logo. Yours will be waiting at the hotel entrance. Our vehicles have a GPS system so that drivers can foresee the traffic situation and decide which way to go to stay away from traffic jams. We will do our best to help you spend your precious time in interesting places.
Our comfortable car will transfer you and your guide to the 200-year-old ‘water village’, regarded as the best representative example of Yangtze River Delta lifestyle and architecture. (The journey is about 1 hour.)
Good to know:
In centuries past Zhujiajiao (/joo-jyaa-jyaoww/) was a trading area: the many canals were used to ferry products along in little boats and barges. Boats are still very much part of the charm of the place. Small boats are ubiquitous there, functioning as a nice way to get a view of the town and experience local life. See our cruise guide on Zhujiajiao.
You will be taking a gondola with our guide on the waterway to view the face of old town from a different angle at your pace. Your group will be 4 to 6 people, offering good flexibility. If you want some more time for taking photos, or you have more questions about the history and architecture, just let your guide know.
China Highlights has set up a Refreshments Kiosk at Zhujiajiao Water Village. China Highlights customers will receive free drinking water, beers, and maps at the service site.
Three Carefully-Selected Sights:
Your tour guide will help you explore three carefully-selected places along the waterway, recommended by our local experts, while other group tours only ride the waterway in a routine way.
Stop at a China Highlights designated restaurant by the side of the waterway, and have some nicely-made local food on the second floor, where you can view the best part of the water village.
We will take you to a nice local restaurant in the water village for a more enjoyable lunch (other groups go to less-scenic restaurants in Shanghai).
The menu has been carefully selected by our product manager based on the tastes of customers from different corners in the world to ensure an agreeable gourmet experience. We would be very pleased to hear from you, and make a special arrangements, if you have any particular requests for food.
The restaurant has an excellent waterway view. You will have an independent room to enjoy your food undisturbed. Open the window and you will have a nice view of the weeping willow trees swaying in the wind, gondolas gliding along the waterway, and local life in the village.
In the afternoon, travel 1 hour by car to the World Financial Center and go up to the 100th floor for spectacular views of the city.
It is the world's tenth tallest building (492 m), and the fifth tallest in Mainland China [2016]. The 100th floor has a viewing gallery 55 meters long — the third highest observation deck in China, after the Canton Tower and Shenzhen IFC, and fourth highest in the world (the Burj Khalifa’s is highest) [2016].
As one of the most popular attractions in Shanghai, the World Financial Center receives many tourists every day. Usually people have to stand in a queue for at least half an hour! Your tour guide will buy the tickets on-line in advance so that you will NOT need to stand in a boring long queue.
In order to save your time and improve your experience, our product team have researched the best time of day to be 1:30 in the afternoon for 3 reasons: less people, brighter sunlight, and better views, especially on poorer air quality days.
Next we will drive you to the top scenic spot in Shanghai — the Bund. It is a fantastic promenade along the Huangpu River. Across the riverside street you will see some of the most unique and wonderful buildings of colonial Shanghai.
To avoid a "just-a-glance" superficial experience, when we walk on the Bund, our expert guide will present an In-depth introduction. On a map we label the 17 most-representative buildings and document the architecture of Shanghai. What you will get is not only a few photos of the new buildings, but also the history and historic images of its colonial past.
We will transfer you to your hotel at the end of the tour, or, if you need to catch a flight or a train after the tour, we are more than happy to help you arrange it. Please let us know.
Going back to your hotel in Shanghai will normally take about 20 to 30 minutes. Likewise for a Shanghai train station. Going to Shanghai Hongqiao Airport directly normally takes about 1½ hours, while 2 hours is needed for going to Pudong Airport from the Bund.
You will need to be at the airport 1½ hours before a domestic flight, or 2½ hours before you’re an international flight. Tell us about your departure time when booking, and remind our guide, and we will make arrangements accordingly.
You may follow us on our Facebook page to see the latest updates, photos and posts from your tour guide at: https://www.facebook.com/SmartChinaTour/
We go deep into how best to tour Shanghai. We research our customers’ favorite spots and photo sites, and work out the best routes to cover Shanghai’s top sights.
In Zhujiajiao: Your tour guide will help you explore three carefully-selected places along the waterway, recommended by our local experts, while other group tours only get a routine waterway cruise. Also you will be taking a gondola with our expert guide, giving you the chance to ask questions and ask to stop in the best places to view the old town from unique angles and get some really unique pictures.
On the Bund: We‘ve chosen the most beautiful part of the bund — between the Asia Building and the Former Consulate-General of the United Kingdom — the Shanghai insider’s “golden route”. We will send you map with our insights and visual aids to help you discover the Bund in depth. (You would do a less interesting walk of about 30 minutes, if you chose to do a routine "bund tour", as most of our competitors do.)
For each of our Shanghai tours, our product team inspects every item several times to establish their quality, and make sure our information is authoritative and up-to-date.
Our tour guides are friendly, knowledgeable, and well-trained. They only work for China Highlights. 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 Shanghai Office: +86-13910694045 (24/7 customer service)
Season | Adult (age 12+) | Child (age 2 – 11) | Infant (age < 2) |
---|---|---|---|
Shoulder Season | $99 USD | $89 USD | free |
Peak Season | $109 USD | $99 USD | free |
* Please Note: The peak season includes the following dates: 29/Apr/2017 - 01/May/2017, 01/Oct/2017 - 08/Oct/2017, 30/Dec/2017 - 01/Jan/2018, 15/Feb/2018 - 22/Feb/2018. Other dates are indicated as shoulder season.