Shanghai Highlife

Fuxing Park

In the morning, experience a snapshot of local life by walking around Fuxing Park. A vestige of the French colonial era, Fuxing Park was once a private Ming Dynasty park that is now the beating heart of Shanghai’s local life. Boasting some of China’s best people-watching opportunities, keep an eye out for ensembles of locals singing songs en masse (of varying talent), ballroom dancing, or even the occasional saxophone quartet.

The Former French Concession

After, take a walk down the elegant, tree-lined streets of the Former French Concession. Ruled by France for almost a century until the 1940s, the boulevards of this enclave were once the domain of China’s rich and powerful, from revolutionaries to movie stars. Step inside the creaking hallways of mansions that have housed members of the French, Japanese, Nationalist, and Communist elite, and relive the glamor of pre-World War II Shanghai.

Lunch in Xintiandi

Enjoy lunch in one of the chic restaurants or cafes of Xintiandi, housed in retrofitted shikumen structures. Xintiandi still bears the traces of an older Shanghai, hidden amidst an infusion of upscale, modern developments. Housed behind its restored facades are international restaurants, boutiques, cafes, and bars. The neighborhood brings together the heady, glamorous atmosphere of decades gone by and the comforts of a modern city. After lunch, we’ll explore the area on foot, strolling through sights new and old.

Choose Your Adventure

In the afternoon, you get to choose which side of Shanghai to explore. For history buffs and art aficionados, the Shanghai Museum’s extensive Chinese art collection is sure to impress. Or, you can head to Tianzifang to browse clothing and handicrafts fashioned by local designers and visit the burgeoning art galleries.

Shanghai Museam

Sat in People’s Square and shaped like an enormous ancient Chinese cooking vessel, the Shanghai Museum delivers on the inside everything that its bold and confident design promises on the outside. In world-class exhibitions, you’ll learn how huge 3,000-year-old bronze wine vessels can be poured using just one hand, and why ancient history was recorded inside cooking pots. Shanghai Museum’s extensive collection cover everything from bronze, jade, and ceramics to calligraphy, painting, and furniture, meaning whatever your taste in Chinese antiquities, there will be something for you.

Yuyuan Garden

Manufacturing and megacities may be the name card of today’s China, but Yuyuan Garden is a postcard example of a more traditional side to the country, one of beautifully manicured gardens, punctuated with rocks and trees, interspersed with green ponds and framed by white walls with circular doorways. Built in what is now downtown Shanghai by a Ming Dynasty official, Yuyuan Garden’s pavilions and bridges, rockeries and teahouse, will transport you to a world far away from skyscrapers and bullet trains.

“ERA” Acrobatics Show

Famous for their death-defying routines and unbelievable feats of strength, the acrobats, contortionists and stuntmen of the ERA acrobatics show will have you contorting your own body in suspense. Ever seen 12 people cycling around a stage on one bike or a girl balancing several crystal chandeliers on each of her limbs? If (as we suspect) not, then hold onto your seats for these jaw-dropping stunts as well as many more from this award-winning show.

Criss-crossed with meandering canals and thirty-six stone bridges, Zhujiajiao is a beautifully quaint water town dating back some 1,700 years ago, although some architectural remains have been dated as far as 5,000 years old. Locals still live in the traditional stone houses with black tiled roofs that line the canals, as they have for centuries. Truly a water town, the citizens of Zhujiajiao rely heavily on water-based transportation systems, as the number of land walkways is limited.

The Maglev: The Fastest Train in the World

Shanghai prides itself on being the most modern and cosmopolitan metropolis in China. When it comes to leaving, this city of lights and skyscrapers, colonial architecture and cocktail bars, isn’t going to send you trundling into a packed subway system with your suitcases. Enter the Maglev, a futuristic train which levitates above the track as it hurtles the 19 miles toward the airport at one third the speed of sound. Just when you thought the fun was over, Shanghai delivers 8 more minutes of hi-tech exhilaration to send you off in style.

Your Flight From Shanghai

Your WildChina guide will escort you to the airport and help you check in for your flight onward.