Zhouzhuang and Shanghai in One Day with Lunch

Meet your guide and group at the time and place that's most convenient for you: the Pudong Sheraton Hotel at 8am, the Grand Hyatt Shanghai at 8:30am, Le Royal Meridien Hotel at 9am, or Hilton Shanghai at 9:15am. It's about an hour and 20 minutes to Zhouzhuang, a pretty water town that still preserves plenty of Ming and Qing dynasty architecture.

Here you'll visit the 18th-century Shen House, a sprawling architectural complex built by a millionaire's heir that occupies an area of more than 21,500 square feet (2,000 square meters). You'll see the Double Bridge, built between 1573 and 1619, which forms the shape of an old-fashioned Chinese key. And you'll explore Zhang House, built in the fifteenth century around the Zhujing River, with over 60 rooms scattered across 19,375 square feet (1800 square meters). To make the most of Zhouzhuang, you might choose to take a river cruise (own expense).

You'll have lunch in Zhouzhuang before traveling back to Shanghai, where your first stop is a silk factory. Learn about the queen of fabrics and how it shaped China's history as you see silk's journey from worm to clothing: you'll have the chance to shop here, too.

From here, you'll visit the iconic Bund, Shanghai's waterfront strip that's almost a museum of world architecture, before exploring Xintiandi, an area of cafes and galleries that showcases how the Old French Concession has gained new life for the twenty-first century. Your tour finishes here around 5:15pm.