8 or 10 Hours Private Old Culture in New Shanghai Tour (or Layover)

Discover Shanghai’s ancient culture in 8 or 10 hours. Explore temples, gardens, and old town. Customize your tour and enjoy local delicacies.

Duration: 10 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Shanghai - Your exceptional tour guide will meet you at your centrally located hotel (or airport, port, Disneyland, depending on your choice) at your preferred time. Discuss the planned itinerary with your guide. If there’s something else you’re interested in that’s not included, we will try to adjust the tour to your preferences. The tour is entirely flexible, tailored to your interests.

This itinerary typically includes: Jade Buddha Temple, Yu Garden, Old Town market, City God Temple, lunch break, Confucian Temple, and more.

  • Jade Buddha Temple - Visit the Jade Buddha Temple, where you will: Experience Buddhist culture through “Scripture copying.” This ancient tradition is significant for Chinese Buddhist believers and is an important practice in Chinese calligraphy. Focusing on Scripture copying can have a calming effect, bringing inner peace and enhancing life wisdom. (Note: If the Temple has other activities scheduled, Scripture copying may not be available.)

Your knowledgeable guide will also introduce you to the invaluable Jade Buddha statues and the rich history of Buddhism.

As an active temple, you can feel the monks’ spirit and way of life.

Entrance tickets included.

  • Yu Garden (Yuyuan) - Next, visit Yu Garden, a 400-year-old classical garden originally built by the affluent Pan family. With rockeries, ponds, pavilions, towers, and plants, the garden blends Chinese culture, lifestyle, philosophy, beliefs, and traditions with landscape aesthetics. (Note: Yu Garden is closed every Monday.)

Entrance tickets included.

  • Shanghai Temple Of the Town God (Chenghung Miao) - Visit the City God Temple, a Taoist temple. Taoism, a local Chinese religion, is known for its theories of Yin & Yang, Fengshui, Tai-chi, and the traditional 12 zodiac signs.

Here, you can discover the zodiac gods specific to you and your family/friends.

Entrance tickets included.

  • Old Town (Nanshi) - Then, explore Old Town, where you’ll find yourself surrounded by traditional Chinese buildings. Enjoy shopping for various Chinese souvenirs such as tea, silk, chopsticks, pearls, jade, brushes, inks, paintings, and more.
  • Shanghai - Food Tasting Break. Inform your guide when and what type of cuisine you wish to try. Your guide will have numerous culinary options to satisfy your taste.

Food tasting is at guests’ own expense.

  • Shanghai Confucian Temple - After the food break, visit the Confucian Temple. Your guide will share Confucius’ story. Confucianism is not a religion but has had a profound influence on Chinese culture for 2500 years.

Confucius is deeply revered in China, often treated as the founder of a formal religion.

We will visit the Confucian Temple, experience a traditional tea tasting, and learn about Confucianism.

  • Shanghai - Optional suggestions include the Bund, Shanghai Towers, Huangpu River cruise, Former French Concession, Xintiandi, Tianzifang, AP Plaza Market, South Bund Fabric Market, Jewish Refugees Museum, and more, time permitting.

After a flexible city tour, guests can choose any sightseeing spot to end their tour in Shanghai.

For guests from airports, Baoshan cruise port, or Disney area hotels, which are far from central Shanghai, we offer pick-up/drop-off options.

What's Included
  • Private transportation
  • Excellent bilingual guide
  • Bottled water
  • Driver with business limo or mini van
  • City hotel pickup and drop-off
What's Not Included
  • Gratuities
  • Lunch
Additional Information

Spend a quality 8 or 10 hours discovering China’s thousands year old cultural roots in today’s Shanghai… Buddhism; Taoism; Confucianism & classical garden art. You will…
• Experience Buddhist culture by copying Scripture calligraphy in Jade Buddha Temple;
• Learn about Confucius with tea testing process in Confucian Temple.
• Finding your own zodiac god in a Taoist temple: City God Temple;
• View the wonderful aesthetic of Chinese landscape by visiting the classical Yu Yuan garden;
• Visit Old Town Shanghai to see the traditional architectures of Ming & Qing dynasties, including time to souvenirs shop;
• Sample and enjoy the various delicacies of Shanghai’s “street food”, or dine at a well-known restaurant, as you wish… all delicious!
The tour itinerary can be fully customized based on your interests and needs, please feel free to discuss with your guide when meet up.
Pickup and drop-off by private car service is inclusive.

  • Children must be accompanied by an adult
  • Dress code is smart casual
  • Please wear comfortable walking shoes
Location
Shanghai
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
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(2 Ratings)
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Zeliangd
Jan 18, 2020
Excellent Shanghai day tour with understanding more deeply in the Culture and Civilizations. - I must admit I wasn’t big on signing-up for a ‘formal’ tour of SH with a tour company. But, I am so glad my wife convinced me to go with Shanghai Lily Tours. Our tour was modified to fit our need, and continued flexible even after we arranged the original tour specifics. Lily showed us a great time in Shanghai, and all for a very reasonable price. We got a car (actually, a van) and driver, and an expert tour guide who knew SH like the back of her hand. Having a guide who can toggle back & forth between Mandarin and English, and who know SH .. its people, its tradition and culture will make your stay in SH so complete. For all you tour naysayers … do it. You will not be disappointed with Lily. Ask for Lily.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Cksteffen
Jan 14, 2020
Shanghai Tour - We really enjoyed this tour. My husband and I took a Westerdam cruise to Shanghai. We booked this tour 4 months ago. I didn’t realize there was more than one port in Shanghai, until Lily, the tour operator, contacted me. She helped us check the port address. She quickly responded to my email. We were lucky to have a great guide, named Summer – always smiling and very friendly. She made sure we had a great time. She explained the ways of Chinese life I never realized. She told us of many cultural traditions and daily routines. Summer took us to a small restaurant for lunch. It was a great choice on three counts: 1) the local people liked it, shown by the fact that it was a little crowded; 2) the food was very tasty; and 3) it was very inexpensive – for 3 of us, it cost only $18!!! The only thing is, it’s a bit difficult to use chopsticks with soup; and we were the only two foreigners in the restaurant. We noticed some people were watching us…. and smiling…. But that’s ok, we were fine making others happy. We noticed most people here were quite friendly. We had a good time in Shanghai. Thank you, Summer and Lily!
Review provided by Tripadvisor