Shanghai Central City Tour with Night Cruise

In the morning, your tour guide will pick you up at the downtown hotel. The wonderful Shanghai tour will start with Yu Garden (closed each Monday). Built in the Mid Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and located in the central area of Shanghai, Yu Garden is also considered as the “city garden”. According to historical records, Pan Yunduan, an officer of the Ming Dynasty started to build a small garden just for fun after he failed the imperial examination. That small garden was the prototype of Yu Garden. Later in 1577, when he retired, Pan was dedicated to the garden construction and spent more than ten years and almost all money on it. And finally, the Yu Garden was completely built, which was top-ranking at that time.

If you are hungry after the sightseeing, don’t worry. There is an old street called Shanghai Old Street about 700 meters away from Yu Garden. Here you can taste local snacks such as Pan-Fried Bun Stuffed with Pork, one of the most famous snacks in Shanghai, Crab-roe tang bao, and small steamed bun. There is a famous tea house in the street, called Old Shanghai Teahouse. Interestingly, the boss here is fond of the Qipao collection, a kind of Chinese traditional costume that originated in the 1920s. So you can enjoy a cup of tea and appreciate the Qipao at the same time.

After that, your tour guide will take you to Tianzifang Market. It was a residential area before, while today there are still many residents living here and keeping their living habits for many years. In the market, you will see all kinds of stores such as coffeehouses, galleries, and many creative shops. Besides, you will find green mailboxes everywhere, which were often used in the 1980s.

After lunch, we will leave for the Former French Concession, a high-class residential area in old Shanghai. The architectural style here is almost the same as that of Paris thousands of miles away. Therefore, Shanghai is also called “Paris of the East”. With lush French Platanus on the roadsides, the buildings look more charming.

Then going northeast for about 6.5 kilometers, we will arrive at the Shanghai Tower, a famous modern skyscraper in Shanghai. It is 632 meters high, ranking the tallest in China and the second in the world. It has the world’s fastest elevator, which can rise at a speed of 18 meters per second and go from the first floor to the 119th floor in just 55 seconds. The elevator will take you to a 546-meter high observatory on the 118th floor called Top of Shanghai Observatory. Here you will have a 360-degree bird’s eye view of Shanghai’s renowned buildings, natural beauties, and changing sky.

The next place we are going to visit is Nanjing road. It is the main shopping district in Shanghai. On both sides of the road, there are many time-honored and well-known stores, such as Zhangxiaoquan Scissors and Tong Ren Tang, a 350-year-old herbal medicine business. One of the most famous food stores is the Shendacheng Pastries. It has a variety of pastries, including Sweet Green Rice Ball, Chinese Style Birthday Cake, Double Stuffing Rice Ball (a kind of sweet rice ball with sesame and sweet bean paste inside), and so on. If you are a pastries lover, you can’t miss Shendacheng.

At the end of Nanjing Road, you will come to the Bund. It has witnessed the development of this city. Here are several classic historical buildings such as the Peace Restaurant, Bank of China Building, and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank. Beside the Huangpu River, there was a Valentine’s Wall. At first, it was built as a flood wall. Due to the shortage of houses in the 1970s to 1980s in old Shanghai, there was no spare room for young couples to have dates at home. So they often went out to meet each other. But at that time, there were not many places for free dates, and the stores would be closed for the night. So the couples chose to go to the riverside for a walk. Later, more and more couples had dates nearby the wall. Therefore, it was called the Valentine’s Wall, and today it is still a place full of romance.

When night falls, the Shanghai classic city tour is coming to an end with a Huangpu River Cruise. You will see the Lujiazui Financial District in the east of the Huangpu River, and to the west of the river lie the Exotic Building Clusters on the Bund, where 26 Chinese and foreign buildings are located, forming a beautiful scenery line. With the wind blowing tightly, you will feel your body and mind get relaxed.

Today’s sightseeing is over. We will send you back to your hotel. Thanks for choosing us and hope to see you again!

Yu Garden

Nanjing road

Author: Yang Ying

Proofreader: Lexie