Shanghai Tours
Discover Shanghai, a booming megalopolis blending the East and West, and ancient times with modernity. The 144-hour visa-free transit policy makes Shanghai a more convenient destination for transiting and short-stay passengers.
We design tours from Shanghai to the Yellow Mountains, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and nearby water towns, all of which can be completed within 6 days. Each tour can be tailored to match your dates and interests. We are all about "Discovery Your Way!"
Best Private Shanghai Tours
These are the most popular Shanghai itineraries for visiting the classic attractions. Similar itineraries never mean that you'll have the same experiences — unlike other travel agencies that just show you around, we create unique Shanghai experiences that allow you to interact with the local people and culture.
- See old and new Shanghai
- Rowing in a water town.
- Enjoy Suzhou's UNESCO gardens
- Experience moxibustion in Tongli Water Town
- Explore theBund in-depth
- Get close to the world's leading drone.
Tours from Shanghai
Shanghai is a major gateway city to most tourist cities in China. Convenient transportation including flights and bullet trains means it is very easy to access other cities. See our five most popular tours from Shanghai below.
- Secret Ingredient of Porcelain
- Porcelain Making Experience
- Be a local and pick tea leaves for one day.
- Enjoy a cultural experience in Nanxun Water Town.
- Explore a Suzhou garden at night
- Experience a tea farmer's life in Hangzhou
- Enjoy sunset and sunrise on the mountains.
- Relax and feel refreshed at Huangshan Hot Spring.
- Skiing Slopes at Your Doorsteps
- Soak and relax in the Hot Spring
- Walk on the less crowded Great Wall section.
- Explore the emperors' lives in the Forbidden City.
- Hollywood of China
- Walk onto a Movie Set and Watch Filming in Action
- Rafting in a Valley and Feel the Cool Water
- Cliff Swing
- Sand Sledding and Dune Bashing
- Wine Tasting
Shanghai Layover Tours and Excursions
Shanghai is a main transit city for global flights and it has several international cruise ports. Utilize your layover time with a city excursion. Here are two popular tours.
- 上海必看ttractions
- Taste steamed soup buns in a century-old restaurant
- Specially designed for a cruise excursion
- Relaxe in the Zhujiajiao Watertown
- Discover how the old meets the new.
- Create happy family memories at Shanghai Disneyland.
China Highlights,Asia Highlights, andGlobal Highlightscollaborate to provide families and couples with personalized and stress-free experiences in diverse destinations.
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Great trip around Shanghai
This was our first time ever visiting Shanghai so we wanted to see good places to go to and good food to eat in Shanghai. That's why we booked with China Highlights. They're very responsive and quick to arrange our 3 day trip. Our guide name is Qi and she is a very sweet and helpful person. She knew we wanted to explore many local foods, so she brought us some local breakfast foods when she picked us up from our hotel, just so we can try everything! She was knowledgeable as well about the culture and history of the places we went to. Will definitely recommend this tour and use China Highlights again for our next trip to China! more
Sep 2023, Sherry
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Fantastic first trip in Shanghai
我的搭档和我第一次访问中国time. Our tour guide was Martin, who was friendly and very knowledgeable. He adjusted the tour to our needs and gave us an extensive tour of Shanghai as well as many fascinating insights on China. He also went above and beyond and offered us plenty of recommendations on what to do in the evenings, how to get there, and even made bookings for us. Martin, thanks again! more
Sep 2023, Regis
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Excellent booking and travel planning process.
Roger Li was our booking and travel advisor. As soon as he reached out to me after my initial online inquiry, he conveyed great communication skills and diligence in his work. He always responded quickly and never hesitated in adjusting our itinerary, until we are completely satisfied. He was also very flexible in our requests e.g. tweaking departure city, additional travellers, extra free days. What impressed me most was his (and probably China Highlights') ability to understand the needs of foreign travellers e.g. using WhatsApp and money exchange issues, tips on using WeChat/Alipay when applicable. We have booked our end of year tour now and hope that China Highlights will deliver as well as this initial process! more
Sep 2023, Catherine Wong
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One day trip to Shanghai with Martin
I liked beautiful riverfront with skyscrapers, especially in the evening. The garden is very nice, lots of walkways makes it feel really big. Thanks to the guide the schedule was very flexible. Instead of waiting in a huge queue for the tv tower we went to nearby skyscraper, we also were able to meet with our friends who also visited Shanghai on the same day. more
Aug 2023, Dmitry
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We had an amazing trip with China Highlights!
Kris was an excellent tour guide in Shanghai and flexible with our travel plans. Mervyn has impressive knowledge of history and culture in Xi'an and did a stellar job navigating the crowds of tourists seeing the Terra-cotta Army. Cactus brings a depth of historical knowledge to the tours that is super interesting, and she has great enthusiasm that makes the tour enjoyable. All our drivers were very good and helped ensure that we got from one destination to the next as safely and quickly as possible. The air conditioning in the comfortable cars during the exceptionally hot summer was appreciated, as well. Our itinerary included Shanghai, Xi'an, and Beijing, plus a few days trips such as a small water town outside Shanghai and the Terra-cotta Army outside Xi'an. We took high speed trains between all our destinations, and the China Highlights team did everything they could remotely to pre-arrange those logistics and also escorted us as far as they were able to at each train station. We traveled first class whenever the tickets were still available, and we stayed in quality hotels that were clean and centrally-located for most tourist activities in each city. It was maybe the greatest culinary trip of our lives. :) more
Aug 2023, Brett N
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Kris from China Highlights in Shanghai was wonderful
We toured Shanghai with Kris from China Highlights as our guide, he was friendly, helpful and made the trip a lot of fun! He also went above and beyond when we traveled to my daughter’s birthplace helping to get information and connect with people from the orphanage where my daughter was adopted from.Highly recommend!! more
Aug 2023, Rita A
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Personalized and very memorable!
Kris with China Highlights was friendly and personable during our trip. He told us the history of Shanghai in an interesting way, and gave us great recommendations to avoid crowds but still see the highlights of Shanghai. He also traveled with us to the city I was born and was very helpful in helping us communicate with locals. He made sure we had a memorable and very special experience. more
Aug 2023, Annie A
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Short but great visit to Shanghai with Kris
We spent a day touring Shanghai with Kris as our tour guide. Kris was very knowledgable about Shanghai and was great at sharing that knowledge with us. He also made great suggestions on how to enhance our visit and make it even more interesting. We visited the Yu Garden in the morning, super interesting, very beautiful and Kris was able to share the history of the Garden and buildings with us make the visit that much more interesting. We then went up the Shanghai tower, an exhilirating trip with stunning views! Lunch was in a local restaurant and was super tasty. In the afternoon Kris suggested that we take a boat tour down the river to see the Bund from the water. A great suggestion and we enjoyed an hour floating on the river admiring the amazing views!! Thank you Kris for showing us parts of Shanghai that we would never have found ourselves and making our stay very memorable. more
Aug 2023, Sandra
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Unusual places in Shanghai with Martin
We had the opportunity to visit Shangai with Martin. It was the second time for us in the city but I must say that Martin made our experience great. We were looking for something different, I love art and Martin inserted in the schedule extra spot to visit such us M50 district. We are used to travel a lot for work, and I can tell that by far Martin is one of the most professional tour guide I have ever met. He was extremely passionate about is work, prepared to talk about topics not only related to the city itself but on different cultures. Super. Strongly recommend a tour with him. more
Aug 2023, Isabella L
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优秀的指导进行了愉快的旅游
My husband booked a two day guided tour with China Highlights for our family whilst in Shanghai. Our guide Jessie was extremely knowledge and professional and made both our days very enjoyable and insightful. I highly recommend booking a trip with Jessie. more
Aug 2023, Sue
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Shanghai from many perspectives with Kris!
Our first stop was in Shanghai where we were blessed to spend a few days exploring the city with Kris, our amazing tour guide. He is knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and committed to curating the trip you want. There were a few things that were not on our original itinerary and Kris went out of his way to rearrange the schedule and make sure we got to see and do them all. He made excellent recommendations for evening activities after our tours were complete. It was fun to get to know one another and share our stories of cross-cultural travels and adventures. I plan to recommend China Highlights's tour with Kris to everyone I know heading to Shanghai! more
Jul 2023, Kaila W
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Shanghai & Suzhou.
My friends and I, group of four pax visited Shanghai, Hangzhou and Huangshan in June. We had 3 tour guides for the various cities. Our first guide, Martin was indeed very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. He was our guide for Suzhou. His explanation and description of Suzhou in English is very good. In Shanghai, he helped us locate the places we wanted to go for our shopping and restaurants to go to. He was very helpful when picking us at airport and train stations and also helping us check in for our train departure at the ever busy Hongqiao station. Martin is highly recommended if you’re looking to visit Shanghai. more
Jul 2023, CindyBeezeebee
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Wonderful Shanghai Experience
我们在沙之旅nghai and Kris was our guide. He has a lot of knowledge on the sights we went to, such as the Yuyuen garden, Shanghai tower, French neighborhood. He was very friendly and flexible. If you visit Shanghai ask for Kris, he is a great guide that gave us a wonderful experience . Enrique Marin more
Jul 2023, 840enriquem
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Fantastic guide - Kris in Shanghai
I traveled with a friend to Shanghai got 1 day visit and we were very lucky to have Kris as our guide. He was fantastic and very accommodating to all our needs, he spent most of the day with us which was very much appreciated during the crazy heatwave and large crowds during Dragon boat festival. His English was also excellent and we learnt a lot about Chinese culture (thank you for sharing!) We’ll be be very happy to recommend Kris for future trips in Shanghai! more
Jul 2023, Dreamer47605491007
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Private Shanghai Tour during Dragon Boat Festival 2023
A friend & I traveled to China in Jun2023 and we had Kris as our private tour guide in Shanghai. He was extremely professional & entertaining and spent the entire day with us supporting a flexible itinerary. He was very knowledgeable about the sights and relevant history and of course current affairs. He greeted us early morning at our hotel lobby and helped transport us (with a private driver) throughout the day. Though we were meant to see the bund during the day, he was willing to join us into the evening during the Dragon Boat Festival so that we felt safe and supported. We really enjoyed our day with Kris and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him or request his services again when we we are back! more
Jul 2023, Ankita K
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Shanghai with teens
Our guide Martin was so cult but so cool. We learnt a lot about the city, totally recommended. It was a great experience for us and our teen children. Our guide Martin was flexible cult and cool. Our family of 2 adults and 2 teens were very happy. Martin helped us solve some issues we had at the airport when leaving Shanghai. more
Jul 2023, gilberto b
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Places a must to visit
A long way away but weather fabulous the Kunlun ( ex Hilton ) hotel fabulous and well situated , whilst shanghai fast becoming my favourite city in the world , fabulous resteraunts , fabulous shopping , go to the Bund , people’s square , shanghai museum , indoor market , Jade Temple , yuan gardens , West Nanjing road and Bar Rouge at night. more
Jul 2023, Peter R
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Shanghai - expert local tourguide, Kris
Had the most amazing time in Shanghai, thanks to our nice and helpful expert local tourguide, Kris! more
Jun 2023, Lilla L
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Shanghai Tour with China Highlights
We recently had the pleasure of going on a tour of Shanghai with China Highlights, and our guide, Ryan! This experience was wonderful, we were able to visit some of Shanghai’s most iconic locations, such as The Bund, the French Concession, and even got to try some famous Xiaolongbao at Jia Jia Tang Bao. Overall, really recommend China Highlights. more
May 2023, Francesco
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Shanghai 1/2 day Tour
Shanghai is a modern big city with some stand out architecture modern and from the past. Ryan was again my guide for Shanghai City tour. We started with Yu Garden which was already flocked with domestic tourists! Yu Garden is the highlight of my Shanghai tour. Ryan explained and pointed out what makes it so special.The next thing we did was go to the Bund and Ryan #chinahighlights, explained some of the prominent old banking buildings and the clock tower tgat was made by the same person that did Big Ben in London. Also pointed out and we entered in disguise, was Peace Hotel. That was another highlight being an Art Deco style original and the Old Men Jazz Band. Then we walked a bit and our driver took us to The Shanghai Tower. Before you go up there is a whole display of Skyscrapers so you can see how the Shanghai Tower ranks. Going up was easy and you would never know you were going so high. It was a rainy morning but visibility was ok. You can walk all the way around to get a view of Shanghai. There were locks you can buy, marketed a "lucky", so you can lock your wishes up there. There is also a metal tree where you can ties a wish ribbon. We then went to the French Quarter which are some old buildings now occupied by modern venues and shops. I was told the area was a night spot so things were just opening. Nanjing Rd is the Retail Heaven thoroughfare, pedestrian only traffic. If you are shopping for name brand you will find it there, just like any other major city. Chinese tourists were out and about, I know they are happy! more
May 2023, JeanneC
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