Private Shanghai Top Highlights Day Tour

Yu Garden and the Old Town Bazaar

The day begins in Shanghai's Old Town at Yu Garden, a classical garden created in the Ming dynasty in the sixteenth century by an official as a retreat for his parents. In about two hectares it packs a yellow-stone rockery, carp ponds, carved halls, zigzag corridors and whitewashed walls topped with tiled dragons. Your guide explains the symbolism of rocks, water and windows that makes Chinese garden design so distinctive.

Around the garden spreads the bazaar, a maze of Qing-style buildings with upturned eaves, crafts and snack stalls. You cross the Zigzag Bridge to the Huxinting Tea House and, if you wish, stop for a cup of tea. Allow about one and a half hours here, ideally early in the morning before the crowds.

The Jade Buddha Temple

The Jade Buddha Temple is an active Buddhist monastery founded in 1882 to house two Buddha statues carved from white jade and brought from Burma. The present halls were built in 1928 in the style of the Song dynasty, with yellow walls, swept roofs and courtyards filled with incense. The seated jade Buddha, almost two metres tall and decorated with gems, sits in an upstairs hall; the smaller reclining Buddha rests peacefully in a hall of its own.

Your guide explains the layout of a Chinese Buddhist temple, from the Hall of Heavenly Kings to the Grand Hall, and how local families still come to pray. About 45 minutes to one hour is enough. Dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered, and note that photography is not allowed in the jade Buddha halls.

People's Square, the French Concession and Xintiandi

People's Square sits at the geographic heart of the city on the site of a former racecourse. Around it stand City Hall, the Shanghai Museum with its collection of bronzes, ceramics and calligraphy, the Grand Theatre and the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. Your driver passes through so you understand how the modern city is organised.

South-west of the square lies the former French Concession, with avenues shaded by plane trees, art deco apartment blocks and elegant villas. At Xintiandi, traditional shikumen lane houses with stone door frames have been restored into a pedestrian quarter of cafés, shops and courtyards. It is a pleasant place to stroll for half an hour and see a style of housing unique to Shanghai.

The Bund Waterfront

The Bund is Shanghai's famous riverside boulevard, a curve of grand banks and trading houses built between the late nineteenth century and the 1930s in neoclassical, Gothic revival and art deco styles. The old Customs House with its clock tower and the domed former bank buildings recall the city's era as a global port.

From the raised promenade you look straight across the Huangpu River to the towers of Lujiazui, the classic contrast of old and new Shanghai. Your guide tells the stories behind the facades, and you have time for photos from the best viewpoints. Allow about 30 to 45 minutes; the Bund is just as impressive by day as by night.

Lujiazui and the Shanghai Tower Observation Deck

Across the river, Lujiazui rose from warehouses and fields in barely three decades to become Shanghai's financial district. Here stand the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the pagoda-inspired Jin Mao Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center, known as the bottle opener, and the twisting Shanghai Tower, 632 metres tall and the highest building in China.

With the default option your ticket to the observation deck on the 118th floor, about 546 metres above the ground, is included. One of the fastest lifts in the world takes you up in under a minute, and on a clear day you see the river bends, the Bund and the city stretching to the horizon. Is the Shanghai Tower observation deck worth visiting? On a clear day it is the highlight of many trips; plan about an hour.