Travel Style

Luxury

Trip Details

Designed exclusively for Gourmet Travel Club by Imperial Tours.

Includes:

• 4 nights accommodation in five star hotel
• 4 breakfasts (buffet breakfast), 3 lunches and 3 dinners at carefully selected restaurants
• Services of a Western bilingual China Host and local tour guides
• All land transportation (as listed on the itinerary)
• Entrance fees to all tourist sites (as listed on the itinerary)
• Local guide and driver gratuities
• Baggage handling, domestic airport, city and hotel taxes

Not included:

• International airfare to / from China, visa processing fees, travel insurance
• Personal expenses such as alcoholic beverages, imported mineral waters, excess luggage fees, telephone charges, room service and laundry charges
• Gratuities to the China Host (recommended at USD 25-50 per guest per day)
• Optional lectures and performances

Pricing (based on double occupancy) from $2,840 per person.

Itinerary

Day 1          ARRIVE IN SHANGHAI

Upon arrival at Shanghai International Airport, you will be met at the gate by airport VIP staff who will lead you through immigration, baggage claim and customs.  Your China Host will then meet you after you have claimed your luggage and passed through customs.  The China Host will accompany you during the remainder of your stay in China (China Host acts as a personal concierge to you throughout your stay in China, allowing you to make changes as you see fit...this may mean adding a site or taking out a site, changing a restaurant or booking a foot massage.).

(Optional - You will be met off the jet bridge and whisked through the airport's Diplomatic Channel.  No waiting in line for customs and immigration.)

Shanghai will take your breath away.  Since the early 80's this city has been growing like no other, the Pudong waterfront becoming as emblematic of economic prowess as that of Manhattan or Hong Kong.

Upon transferring to the hotel, you will have the remainder of the evening at leisure (no other services included this evening). 

Day 2          SHANGHAI

This morning we will visit a local wet market, where you will become acquainted with a range of exotic fruits, vegetables and spices that make China a gourmand's treat.

You will then enjoy a cooking lesson inside of an old French Concession home.  Here you will learn to prepare dishes that one would eat in a typical Shanghainese home.

After lunch we take you to visit the Shanghai Museum, one of the most modern in the country.  Arranged by category rather than according to a chronology, its collection introduces and elucidates the gamut of Chinese arts from ceramics to jade and ivory carvings to paintings.

We also recommend the Urban Planning Museum where a huge scale model of the city outlines the vast changes that have taken place here within the last decade, as well as vast projects that are planned for the future of the city.

Dinner takes place at one of our favorite Shanghai restaurants, boasting a magnificent view over the Bund and Pudong waterfronts.  (B, L, D)

Day 3          SHANGHAI

Your tour of Shanghai continues with a lecture/tour on colonial architecture in Shanghai given by a member of the Shanghai Historical Society.  This tour will take you into some of the most important buildings along the Bund and French Concessions including the former Hong Kong Shanghai Bank.

For lunch today you will enjoy a special menu created by award winning chef Jereme Leung, one of the most innovative young chefs in China.  He is the author of "New Shanghai Cuisine" and Chef Consultant to such leading restaurants as the Whampoa Club and the China House at Bangkok's Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

In the afternoon we will visit the Yu Gardens, one of the best examples of traditional Chinese garden design in the country.  Afterwards, you will have some time to stroll through Shanghai's Old Quarter with its bustling market feel.

The area is a great place to try some of Shanghai's traditional street foods, such as the city's signature dish xiaolonghao - soup-filled dumplings.

Afterwards, we will travel along sycamore-lined boulevards into the heart of the French Concession.  This section of the "Paris of the Orient" now hosts many arts-based businesses and art galleries that we can visit if you so desire.  The afternoon will be spent discovering some of Shanghai's great shopping treasures.  This might include a contemporary ceramics shop, the studio of a woman who designs cashmere handbags for Harrods or a fantastic Tibetan carpet shop.

For this evening we will arrange a private dinner catered by Jean Ceorges inside the cupola of an Art Deco building on the Bund with a magnificent view over the Huangpu River.  This set-menu meal will be designed and catered by Jean Georges (only available for 8 or fewer persons).  (B, L, D)

Day 4          DEPART SHANGHAI

This morning, you will be transferred to the airport in time for your flight home.  But don't forget to wake up early to take one last advantage of both the Hyatt's magnificent views and amazing breakfasts! 

Accommodations

Shanghai:          Park Hyatt Hotel - Park Room

Note:  The Park Hyatt is located on the 73rd to the 91st floors of Shanghai's tallest building.  If you are not comfortable with heights, please let us know and we will suggest an alternate property.