Shanghai and the Garden Cities

For a first outing, we recommend a stroll along the Bund – the iconic walkway lining the Huangpo River. The best place in the city to get your bearings, this breezy promenade backed by stately old Neo-Classical and Art Deco buildings faces the dramatic skyline of Pudong across the water – a mesmerizing spectacle around sunset when the twinkling lights of its innumerable skyscrapers are reflected in the water.

If you didn’t make it to the Bund on the previous day, head there first thing in the morning, while the promenade is dotted with people practising Tai Chi, before spending a couple of hours in the Shanghai Museum, whose collection of ancient treasures ranks among the finest in China. Next, visit the enchanting Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai’s Old Town, famed for its pagoda-roofed pavilions, koi carp ponds, luohan pines and rockeries. Then tour the adjacent market, and, time permitting, the Jiangnan Silk Workshop to see modern Chinese sericulture in action. Round the day’s sightseeing off with a short river cruise for views of Pudong lighting up after sunset.

Packed around a network of winding canals, Zhujiajiao is a traditional ‘water town’ on the Dianpu River. Its exceptionally well-preserved array of late-medieval shophouses, temples and ceremonial halls are all delightfully free of signboards and motorized traffic, attracting a steady flow of admirers from the nearby metropolis. Be sure to take a boat ride on the river to see the 16th century Fangsheng Bridge, Zhujiajiao’s five-span centrepiece. In the afternoon you’ll travel on to nearby Suzhou, another pretty ‘water town’, where you’ll spend two nights in a heritage hotel.

Your guide who will show you around Suzhou’s highlights, including the Humble Administrator’s Garden (regarded as one of the finest Classical Ming gardens in the country) and the Pan Gate, featuring both land and water entrances. The town owed its former prosperity to its position on the Grand Canal, an engineering achievement regarded by many on a par with that of the Great Wall, which you can explore on a boat trip should you wish.

You’ll arrive in Hangzhou in time for a sunset stroll along West Lake, whose serene, willow-lined shores are dotted with pagoda-roofed pavilions, tombs and temples.

Feilai Feng mountain, just beyond West Lake, is famous for the hundreds of laughing Buddhas and other statues carved between the 10th and 14th centuries from the limestone boulders lining the trails around the enormous Temple of the Soul’s Retreat. Founded in the 4th century, the shrine is still of great religious significance for Chinese Buddhists and a fascinating place to observe traditional pilgrimage and worship. Longjing Tea, grown, hand-picked and processed in artisanal quantities on the slopes south of the temple, is regarded as the finest in China. You’ll visit a small museum outlining the history of Chinese tea, and can watch pluckers at work in the fields.

One of the most attractive of China’s megacities, Nanjing (formerly known as ‘Nanking’), on the Yangtze River, boasts a history stretching back two-and-a-half thousand years, though its most impressive monuments date from the era of the Ming Dynasty. The best place to start your sightseeing is the extensively restored Temple of Confucius, which stands beside the Qin Hai River in a district filled with impressive historic buildings, including the Jiangnan Gongyuan, where students used to sit exams to become administrators in the Ming era. Your guide will show you the way across the canal in front of the temple to a neighbourhood retaining a fine crop of 17th century houses.

Winding for 20 miles around the capital, the 14th century ramparts surrounding Nanjing were the most extensive in the world at the time of their construction, and remain an extraordinary sight. Your guide will show you the magnificent Zhonghua and Xuanwu Gates, and lead you on a short walk around a restored section of the walls. The Tianchao (or ‘Presidential’) Palace and gardens date from a similar period. Nanjing’s busiest visitor attraction, however, is the Massacre Memorial Museum, which catalogues the atrocities that followed the fall of the city to the Japanese in 1937, when an estimated 300,000 people were murdered.

The tomb is approached via a paved pathway flanked by polished marble statues of animals and attendants dating from the 14th century. The views over the city from the hilltop are wonderful.

An off-track alternative for the afternoon would be a trip across the river to the neighbouring city of Yangzhou, where Marco Polo lived for three years in the 1280s. Noteworthy sights here include traditional storytelling houses, a couple of fine museums, and the hilltop Puhaddin tomb and mosque, overlooking the old Grand Canal.

You’ll also have enough time today, should you wish to bid farewell to the city in high style, to ascend the 101-storey World Financial Centre building for a fabulous view over the downtown area. For supper, seek out one of Shanghai’s acclaimed Cantonese restaurants to dine on cult local dishes such as dim sum, shrimp dumplings or crispy pork belly.