Shanghai Tour Plan - How to Plan a Tour in Shanghai
Shanghai is the magical city of China. It is impossible to visit all the tourist attractions in this metropolis. Below we recommended three routes respectively for one-day, two-day, and three-day Shanghai tour plans.
For the one-day tour plan, we included the major highlights of Shanghai. For a two-day tour plan, we help you go more deeply into Shanghai and find some interesting experiences. For the three-day tour plan, we hope you will understand Shanghai more than most other tourists.
One-Day Shanghai Tour Plan
Route: Visit City God Temple and Yu Garden in the morning. Visit the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Shanghai City History Exhibition Hall, the Bund, the Former French Concession, and Tianzifang in the afternoon.
Ticket Prices: Yu Garden (CNY40), Oriental Pearl TV Tower, and Shanghai City History Exhibition Hall (Joint Ticket is CNY160)
The City God Temple and its surrounding area are the best places to touch local people’s lives in the past. The old buildings, traditional shops, and local desserts show you the basic elements of people’s daily life. This area will become even more prosperous during festivals.
The Yu Garden, adjacent to the City God Temple, was a private garden with a history of over 500 years. You will soak up the atmosphere of culture among the artworks such as rockeries, houses and pavilions, carvings, and plants.
The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is the best place to take a bird's view of Shanghai city due to the 259-meter-high glass terrace. Walking on the transparent terrace feels like walking in the sky. Not too many people are brave enough to walk around the circular terrace. The Shanghai City History Exhibition Hall is located in the basement of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. You can learn about the history of Shanghai in the last 200 years via photos, videos, ancient relics, and wax statues. Especially for the wax statues, they look so real that you may think you are in an ancient underground city.
There are over 20 historical buildings built between 1901 and 1950 AD along the Bund. Most of them were built by foreigners. While walking along the Bund, you will feel like walking in a Western country.
The Former French Concession consists of over 100 roads. Thousands of British, French, or Russian citizens were living in the concession in the 1920s. They built lots of villas, churches schools, and hospitals in the concession. Most of these buildings are preserved very well now.
The Tianzifang is only 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away from the Sinan Road, the most renowned road in the Former French Concession. Countless fashionable, handcrafted and coffee shops are hidden in the lanes of Tianzifang. Although this area is old, the creativity here is unrestrained.
Two-Day Shanghai Tour Plan
Route:
Day 1 – Visit City God Temple and Yu Garden in the morning. Visit the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Shanghai City History Exhibition Hall, and the Bund in the afternoon. Take the Huangpu River Cruise at Night.
Day 2 – Visit the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall and Shanghai Museum in the Morning. Visit the Former French Concession and Tianzifang in the afternoon.
Ticket Prices: Yu Garden (CNY40), Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Shanghai City History Exhibition Hall (Joint Ticket is CNY160), Huangpu River Night Cruise (CNY128), Urban Planning Exhibition Hall (CNY20)
Two days is enough to get some deeper experience, so we added three more activities to the tour plan. You will know more about the history and plans of Shanghai after the two-day tour.
The 113-kilometer-long (70.2 miles) Huangpu River is Shanghai people’s mother river. The one-hour night cruise starts and ends at the section of the Bund. You will admire the illuminated skyscrapers on the banks of the Huangpu River during the cruise, including the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Global Financial Center, and Shanghai Tower. These skyscrapers show you the power of Shanghai.
The Urban Planning Exhibition Hall introduces the plan for the development of Shanghai between 1999 and 2020 AD. Although it is only one year from 2020, the exhibition hall is also worth a visit. There is a model of Shanghai city on a scale of 1:500. The rivers, buildings, and trees on the model look very exquisite.
Besides, the 14-meter-long phantom image screen allows you to admire Shanghai from the angle of an unmanned aerial vehicle. The terrace where you are standing will go up or down slightly while the unmanned aerial vehicle is going up or down.
Opened in 1996, over one million ancient relics are collected in the Shanghai Museum. Most ancient relics in the museum are collected from other parts of China. If you don’t have time to go to other places, Shanghai Museum is a perfect place to admire the essence of priceless relics from all around China. The bronze vessels, pottery proclaim Chinese calligraphy, and paintings are must-sees in the museum.
Three-Day Shanghai Tour Plan
Route:
Day 1 –Visit City God Temple and Yu Garden in the morning. Visit the Oriental Pearl TV Tower Shanghai City History Exhibition Hall and the Bund in the afternoon. Visit Shanghai Tower at night.
Day 2 – Visit the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall and Shanghai Museum in the morning. Visit the Former French Concession and Tianzifang in the afternoon. Take the Huangpu River Cruise at night.
Day 3 – Visit Zhujiajiao Water Town in the morning. Visit the China Art Museum and Xintiandi in the afternoon.
Ticket Prices: Yu Garden (CNY40), Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Shanghai City History Exhibition Hall (Joint Ticket is CNY160), Huangpu River Night Cruise (CNY128), Urban Planning Exhibition Hall (CNY20), Shanghai Tower (CNY180), Zhujiajiao Watertown (CNY64)
If you plan to spend three days in Shanghai, we believe you have known enough about modern Shanghai in the first two days. So we arranged a water town visit which let you see the traditional aspect of the people’s life in the South Yangtze River Area.
With a height of 632 meters (2073 feet), the Shanghai Tower is the highest skyscraper in Shanghai. It is a great feeling to take a bird's view of other skyscrapers on the Shanghai Tower. When you see the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Global Financial, and other buildings all under your feet, you will feel you are the king of Shanghai. When all the buildings are illuminated at night, the views become even more colorful.
The Zhujiajiao is the nearest water town to Shanghai. The small bridges, sculling boats, and houses on the banks of rivers are the essence of a dream-like water town. We suggest you visit the water town in the morning to soak up the water town atmosphere before too many tourists come. The Kezhi Garden, where you can feel a strong sense of the culture of ancient Chinese gardens, is a must-visit.
The major collections in the China Art Museum are Chinese paintings and shadow plays. There is no entrance fee for the museum, but if you want to see the multi-media painting Riverside Scene at the Qingming Festival, the most breathtaking collection in the museum, you have to spend 20 RMB.
The Riverside Scene at the Qingming Festival is a painting drawn around 1,000 years ago. The 5.2-meter-long (17 feet) painting depicts a prosperous ancient market. The multi-media version shows you the change of the market from daytime to night. It looks as if the painting is alive. The museum is located in the China Pavilion for the World Expo 2010. Even if you are not interested in the collections, it is still worth seeing the famous World Expo legacy.
After three days of exploration in Shanghai, you might be a little tired. We suggest you relax yourself in the coffee shops in Xintiandi, a fashionable area in Shanghai. You can find the most famous brands here.
What to Eat in Shanghai?
Delicacies from all over the world can be found in Shanghai, however, we believe that tasting the local food is indispensable if you want to get an excellent experience in Shanghai. Below are local recommended local delicacies.
Pan-Fried Bun Stuffed with Pork – This kind of bun became popular in the 1930s. Now you can also find the bun stuffed with beef or chicken. The very delicious sauce inside the bun can be tasted after it is fried.
Green Bun Stuffed with Sweetened Bean Paste – Due to the sauce of wormwood the wrapper of the bun is green. You can eat this kind of bun without heating it.
Shanghai Sauce Duck – The duck is very dry and the sauce is a little sweet and spicy.
You are welcome to have a look at our Shanghai Tour Packages to find the route you like the best!