Seven days are listed, but only four are priced. What is going on?

Four days are settled and three are not. The Shanghai and Zhujiajiao days have contracted suppliers, named admissions and a price. The Suzhou and Hangzhou days are designed but the ground handling there is not yet placed, so we will not price them and will not describe experiences we cannot yet deliver. You lose nothing by asking: we tell you in writing which version you are being quoted, and the four-day plan stands complete on its own.

Most of our guests do not. These passports currently enter China visa-free for up to 30 days: British · French · German · Dutch · Belgian · Italian · Spanish · Portuguese · Greek · Nordic · Central European · Irish · Canadian · Australian · New Zealand. US passports do need a Chinese tourist or business visa for this route, and the fee and appointment are your own; a 10-year multiple-entry visa works. We check your entry permission against your dates before you pay anything.

A commuter ferry instead of a river cruise? Really?

Yes, and it is deliberate. The cruise shows you the skyline you already saw from the Bund, from further away, with a commentary. The ferry costs about a bus fare, runs all day, and puts you on an open deck among people going to work, with the barges and container tugs that are the whole reason this city exists passing close by. If you also want the cruise, we will book it separately and tell you the fare.

Can you actually get us into the Shanghai Museum?

We book the timed slot for you rather than leaving it to you, because the museum's own reservation system carries limited English support. We cannot guarantee any single date: slots are released on the museum's own schedule and popular days go. If your day two cannot be booked, we tell you before you pay and name the replacement in writing, and the two Shanghai touring days can swap over so the museum runs on day three instead.

Why are lunches and dinners not included?

On purpose. Shanghai is the wrong city in which to prepay set menus: the range runs from a bowl of noodles under a plane tree to a dining room with a view of the river, and tastes diverge by the second day. Breakfast is included at the hotel each morning; for the rest, your guide recommends and books around what you actually feel like eating, and you pay for it there.

Shanghai, by Water

Overview

Everyone photographs the Bund. Almost nobody asks why the city is standing there at all. It is standing there because of the water, so this plan follows the water rather than the skyline: a pond inside a Ming garden wall, a river that decided where every building went, a commuter ferry that crosses it for about the price of a bus ride, and a canal town an hour out where the water is the street itself. One hotel, three nights, no domestic flights, nothing before nine in the morning. Once you are home, you will catch yourself looking at your own city's river and asking what it was ever for.

— LyrikTrip travel designers

Every LyrikTrip journey begins with a conversation. Tell us your dates and who is coming, and we will tell you two things in writing: what these days cost, and which parts of the week are settled and which are not. If the seven-day version is not ready for your dates, we will say so and quote you the four days instead. First reply within four hours; a written statement of what is priced and what is open, within one business day.

Why you'll love this trip

One base, four days out. The old city quarter, museum bronzes, a water town canal and the tower deck, with English-speaking guides.
7 days from a walled garden pond to a public ferry deck. Understand a city through its water.

Cross the Huangpu on the public commuter ferry, standing on the open deck with people on their way to work, for the fare of a bus ride: you arrive on the far bank having done what the city does, not what visitors do.
Stand on the Bund at dusk with your guide beside you start to finish: a century of stone banks on one side of the water, a skyline of towers on the other, and nobody interrupting you to practice their English.
Walk into a Ming garden inside the old city walls, where a pond, a rockery and a covered walk turn a piece of the loudest city in the delta into something you can hear yourself think in.
Take a hand-rowed boat down a canal in Zhujiajiao, where the doorsteps go down into the water and the lanes come up to meet the bridge, and stop talking without deciding to.
Unpack once. Three nights in one Shanghai hotel, with the water town as a half day out and back, so nobody moves a suitcase to see it.

Things to do

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Itinerary

Arrivals

Shanghai · Day 1 - Day 4

Day 1 · Arrival in Shanghai

Land, and do nothing. The city can wait until tomorrow morning.

Airport pickup Your driver meets your flight at Pudong or Hongqiao in a private air-conditioned vehicle, set against your actual arrival time, and takes you to the hotel. Nothing is scheduled after that.

The rest of the evening Yours. If you want to walk, ask the front desk for the streets around the hotel rather than heading to the Bund alone: the Bund is tomorrow evening, and your guide is with you when you go.

Day 2 · Yu Garden, the museum, the Bund

Water inside a wall, then water as a border. Two versions of the same city, six hours apart.

Yu Garden and the old city You start inside the Ming garden, following covered walks between rockery, pond and pavilions, past the pitted limestone rock the garden is known for. Your guide shows you the trick the layout plays on you: you never see the whole garden at once, on purpose. Then the lanes outside the wall, snack shops and temple market, at whatever pace your morning has left.

Shanghai Museum Your reserved slot is booked before you land, so you walk in rather than queue for one. Bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, and the decorative arts: your guide takes one gallery properly rather than all of them at speed.

The Bund at dusk You walk the embankment as the lights come on, stone banks at your back, towers across the water, and your guide beside you the whole way. Somewhere along the railing you will stop mid-sentence, because both sides of the river are asking you the same question.

Day 3 · Plane trees, the ferry, the deck

The city at street level, at water level, and from the top. Find out which one tells you the most.

The former French Concession and Wukang Road on foot You walk under plane trees along Wukang Road and the streets off it, past 1920s and 1930s villas and apartment buildings that people still live in, with small shops on the ground floors. Your guide tells you who built what and who lives there now.

Huangpu River ferry You queue with the commuters, walk on with them, and stand at the rail while barges and container tugs pass. This is the working river, and the crossing costs about what a bus ride costs. By the middle of the river you will notice that you have not checked your phone once.

Shanghai Tower observation deck The lift takes you up on the Pudong side, and the delta opens out below you: the bend of the river, the far bank you walked last night, the old city and its garden as a patch of dark roofs, and the creeks running west toward the water towns you meet tomorrow.

Day 4 · Zhujiajiao

The morning the street turns into water. Then the plan hands over to what is still being built.

Down the canal by hand-rowed boat An hour west of the city, a boatman rows you from the stern with a single oar. Doorsteps go straight down into the water; a woman rinses vegetables on the bottom step; the lanes climb to meet each bridge you pass under.

Fangsheng Bridge and the stone lanes You come up onto the town's high stone arch and look down the canal in both directions, then walk the lanes on foot, which in this town means walking along the water, because there is no other way for a street to go.

Kezhi Garden A walled garden house built by a family with the money to make a private landscape in a town where water was already everywhere: the same instinct you met inside Yu Garden two days ago, at a quarter of the scale.

Back to Shanghai by lunchtime The same vehicle brings you back into the city, and the priced part of this plan ends here. What happens after lunch, and where you sleep tonight, belongs to the Jiangnan extension, which is not settled: see Special Notes.

Private vehicle

Suzhou · Day 5

Day 5 · Jiangnan extension, Suzhou

Designed, not yet bought. We would rather say so here than after you have paid.

Where this day stands The plan takes you to Suzhou for one night. We do not yet have a contracted ground partner there, which means the hotel, the vehicle, the guide and the sights for this day are not priced on this page and are not promised to you.

What you get instead of a promise Two versions of this trip are on the table. One is the full seven days, once the Jiangnan ground handling is placed and named. The other is a four-day Shanghai and Zhujiajiao plan, priced exactly as written above. Tell us your dates and we will tell you in writing which one you are being quoted, before any payment.

Private vehicle

Hangzhou · Day 6

Day 6 · Jiangnan extension, Hangzhou

Same answer as yesterday, and for the same reason.

Where this day stands The plan takes you to Hangzhou for two nights. There is no contracted ground partner there yet either, and the two experiences designed into these days have not been verified on our side, so we describe none of them here. Naming something we cannot yet deliver is how routes get sold badly, and we are not doing it.

When this changes When the ground handling is signed and each item has a verified record, these days appear here in the same detail as days one to four, and they move into the price table rather than sitting beside it.

Flight

Shanghai · Day 7

Day 7 · Departure day

The last day is honest about itself. The way home is not settled yet.

Where this day stands The designed route spends day seven in Hangzhou while the plan flies out of Shanghai, and the leg between the two is not written into the route yet. Until it is, we commit to no departure flight time, and the airport drop-off stays outside the price.

On the four-day version If you are quoted the Shanghai and Zhujiajiao plan, the last morning is simple, an unhurried breakfast and a private transfer to the airport with time to spare, and it is written into your confirmation with the drop-off included.

Departures

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Hotels

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Included / Excluded

What's Included

Airport pickupShanghai airport pickup on day one, private air-conditioned vehicle, set against your arrival time
Hotels3 nights in Shanghai, the nights of days one, two and three, breakfast included in the room rate
Meals3 hotel breakfasts, on the mornings of days two, three and four
Private vehicleAir-conditioned private vehicle on day two and day three in Shanghai, and on day four to Zhujiajiao and back
GuideLicensed English-speaking guide on days two, three and four, with the Bund evening accompanied start to finish
Admissions and experiencesYu Garden with the old city quarter · Shanghai Museum, admission and the timed reservation booked by us · the Bund and the Pudong skyline in the evening, guide accompanied, no admission charge · the former French Concession and Wukang Road on foot, no admission charge · the Huangpu River ferry, public commuter fare included · Shanghai Tower observation deck · Zhujiajiao, the hand-rowed boat fare, Kezhi Garden admission, and Fangsheng Bridge with the stone lanes
AlsoTravel accident insurance

Not Included

International flightsFlights into and out of Shanghai. Shanghai has nonstop service from all seven of our source markets, so no connecting leg is needed to reach it
VisasVisa fees and processing for guests who need a Chinese visa, including all US guests on this route
The Jiangnan extensionEverything on days five, six and seven: the Suzhou night, the two Hangzhou nights, and the ground services, admissions and inter-city transport that go with them
Airport drop-offNot priced today, because the departure day is not settled. Once it is, it moves into the table above
MealsBeyond the three hotel breakfasts above: all lunches and all dinners, recommended and booked by your guide, on your own account
In-park and in-venue transportShuttles, electric carts and sightseeing boats where a site charges separately. This plan needs none of them: the only boat in the price is the Zhujiajiao hand-rowed boat
In-venue spendingAnything bought in the old city quarter, the museum shop, the water town lanes or the Wukang Road shops, with any shipping, customs or tax-refund cost it brings
PersonalGratuities, single or extra room difference, personal spending, and anything not named in the table above

Special Notes

A few things on this route are still moving. Here they are, told straight.

Days five to seven are in final product review — the Jiangnan extension through Suzhou and Hangzhou is designed but the ground handling is not yet placed, so it is not priced and not promised here. Bookings for the seven-day version are not open. Before you pay anything, we tell you in writing whether you are being quoted the seven days or the four-day Shanghai and Zhujiajiao plan.
Inter-city transport — the rail legs of the designed route carry no stated cabin class yet and have not been checked against this season's timetable, so none of them is in the price. They are quoted, with cabin class in writing, once the extension is settled.
Shanghai Museum — entry runs on a timed reservation and the booking system carries limited English support, so we book your slot. We check the museum's opening status against your own departure dates before taking your booking; if it is closed on your day two, day two and day three swap over and the museum runs on day three.
The Bund evening — guide accompanied start to finish. Street approaches there work on visitors in their first nights in the city, so we never sell that evening as something you do alone.
Zhujiajiao — a half day out of Shanghai and back, in the same vehicle, with no change of hotel and no suitcase to move for it. The hand-rowed boat is open to the sky: in December, bring a warm layer and gloves for the morning on the water.
National holiday week — no departures between October 1 and October 7. Yu Garden, the Bund and Zhujiajiao all run at peak crowd levels that week, and the plan does not read well in a crowd.
Confirmation and changes — these terms are being finalized with our ground partners. Until they are settled, your quote states its own confirmation deadline and its change and refund conditions in writing, and no booking is taken without them.
Hotels — named in your written confirmation; "or similar" always means the same class and a comparable location, never a quiet downgrade.

Is Seven Days Your Length?

Is seven days your length?

Tell us your dates and who is coming: we will shape the length around you.

Good to Know

Group: Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size.
Arrival: Day one is the arrival day and carries no touring, so you do not need to land a day early. Airport pickup and that night's hotel are in the price
Ports: Shanghai in, Shanghai out. Shanghai has nonstop service from all seven of our source markets on both the arrival and the departure side
Language: English-speaking licensed guides on every touring day
Season: This page is written for departures from October to December 2026. Autumn here is clear and mild; December is cold and damp, and the outdoor items, the ferry deck and the canal boat, want a warm layer
Visa window: The 30-day visa-free policy currently runs to December 31, 2026. Because this is a 7-day plan, departures on or before December 25, 2026 finish inside that window; later dates are quoted after the official renewal announcement
Payment: Bookings are not open yet. When this route opens, these are the terms. From 1 guest. A 10% deposit (minimum $399) locks your dates. The balance is due 14 days before departure. "Or similar" never means a quiet downgrade
Flexibility: Walking distances adapt to your pace throughout, and the two Shanghai touring days can swap over if a venue's opening day requires it

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When the plan feels right, a 10% deposit holds your entire trip. Balance due 30 days before departure.

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Shanghai, by Water

Overview

Why you'll love this trip