Overview
What this journey is
Suzhou is close enough to Shanghai that the whole of it gets attempted in a day, and this is the version worth doing: the Lingering Garden, laid out in 1593 and one of the four great classical gardens, on the World Heritage list; Panmen, the only surviving gate in China where the land and water gates still run side by side, on foundations from 514 BC; and Tiger Hill, with the leaning Yunyan pagoda and the Sword Pool. Lunch is at your own expense and the day runs about ten hours.
Day by day
- 1
Day 1 — Shanghai to Suzhou and back
Pick-up at your hotel · Lingering Garden · Panmen scenic area · lunch at your own expense · Tiger Hill, the Yunyan pagoda and the Sword Pool · back to your Shanghai hotel.
What’s included
- Private vehicle and driver for the whole programme
- Licensed English-speaking guide
- Entrance tickets to every sight named in the day plan
- Guide and driver meal allowance, plus their rooms on any night away from Shanghai
- Hotel pick-up and drop-off — no fixed meeting point to find
Not included
- Hotels — quoted against your room-type brief
- Lunches and dinners — quoted against your meal standard
- Gratuities for the guide and driver
- Travel and medical insurance
- Bottled water and anything not itemised
- International flights and associated taxes
- China visa — required for most passports
Operational notes
The things worth raising before you quote it, not after.
- Ten hours is a real ten hours. If the client wants Zhouzhuang as well, take the two-day version and sleep in Suzhou.
- Gardens are small and get crowded — an early start is worth more here than anywhere else on this shelf.
- The Humble Administrator’s Garden is not on this build; say so if you want it swapped for the Lingering Garden.
- Rates do not apply over the China International Import Expo or Chinese New Year. Other major trade fairs are usually fine at more than a month's notice.
- Booked inside a fair week, vehicles and guides get scarce and pricing moves with the market.
- Large groups may need a luggage vehicle, which is quoted on top.
- An evening meal or an evening activity adds a guide and vehicle surcharge.
1DQuoted on brief
Request netMore journeys
Others on the multi-day shelf
Everything on this shelf is private and quoted on brief, so any of it can be reshaped or bolted onto a routing you are already running.
1D · Day trip
Shanghai Line A — Pudong & the Bund 1D
The new-Shanghai day: the glass floor on the Oriental Pearl, the city history museum underneath it, a daytime river cruise, then the Bund from the other bank.
Shanghai · Pudong · the Bund
1D · Day trip
Shanghai Line B — Yu Garden & the old town 1D
The old-city day: Yu Garden and the lanes around it, the former French Concession at Xintiandi, closing at the Jade Buddha Temple.
Shanghai · Yu Garden · Xintiandi
1D · Day trip
Shanghai Line C — Pudong and the old town in one day 1D
Lines A and B compressed into one day for a client who only has one — tower and museum, Yu Garden and the old town, closing on the Bund.
Shanghai · Pudong · Yu Garden · the Bund
Putting this on your shelf?
Tell us your market, pax profile and target price point — we return net rates, a hotel ladder, and white-label documents.