3h30

By walk

Instant confirmation

About this activity

Shanghai is not just about colonial architectures. There are some rarely areas of old city behind the modern skyscrapers. This interesting walking tour will take you to visit the non-tourist sites where you might run into a street that full of "shanghai style pajamas" and an exiting Majiang game. The highlight of tour includes visits to one of the oldest private local houses and following places:
• The historical Fire Tower in old city, built in 1910.
• The Qiao Jia Street that used to be lived with all celebrities in town during Ming and Qing dynasty.
• The Catalpa Garden, built by a Chinese industrialist and artist in the early 20th century, the buildings inside are the combination of Chinese, Gothic, Greek and Japanese architecture, this garden was used to entertain Albert Einstein in 1922.
• The Secluded Library ( not opened to public but to you), it is the garden of a ship owner in past and home of one resident at present, inside the houses are dated back to Qing dynasty more than 300 years ago with fascinating original carvings still on windows, gates, column and ceiling.
• The Nine-Rooms-Buildings, former residence of Xu Guangqi, a remarkable Chinese scholar officials 500 years ago. He is the first translator to introduce Catholic religion, western mathematics and astronomy into China.
• Home quarter lanes, food market and Mahjong room, where you could discover the daily fun of Shanghainese through street cooking, laundry, shopping, preparing fish and crabs at market and real seriousness in Mahjong games.
• The Confucius Temple, built in 1368-1398, dedicated to worship Confucius (BC551-479) who was a great thinker, educator, and founder of the Confucianism in China, is the only ancient architectural complex in Central Shanghai and had been the top learning institution of Shanghai over a long time.Please note: The Confucius Temple is available for morning and afternoon tour. For the evening tour, you will pay a visit to Classical Shanghai House Museum.

After your tour is finished, your guide will assist you to arrange a taxi or utilize public transportation back to your hotel. Or you can choose to spend more time browsing around in the city.

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Included

Hotel pickup
Excellent English-speaking guide
Private transportation
Entrance tickets
Entry/Admission - Shanghai Confucian Temple

Not included

Personal expenses
Gratuities
Hotel drop-off

Additional

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
Children must be accompanied by an adult
Please wear comfortable shoes
Operates in all weather conditions, please dress appropriately
A maximum of 10 people per booking
Please indicate morning tour or afternoon tour in special requirement area upon booking
This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate

Features

Tourism

80%

Cultural

75%

Sport

25%

Reviews

5.0

21

K

Katharina P

5 | 2019-09-17

The tour was absolutely the right choice! Penny is a very knowledgeable and competent guide and a beautiful woman too!  I really enjoyed the tour, learned a lot about the historical side of Shanghai and for sure saw some exciting corners and places of old Shanghai, which are not accessible for an usual tourist. Absolutely recommendable and I will for sure book the next tour on my future trip to Shanghai! Thank you.

V

VENICE C N

5 | 2019-07-03

We had Kelly as our guide. She met us at our hotel at 9am and took us on an amazing journey through Shanghai history. Kelly has such a great knowledge of Chinese history. It is a shame to find out that much of the Old Town is set to be demolished with the residents being moved out. Hopefully there will be a museum established to allow this history to be passed on to visitors of this area. We recommend if you are visiting Shanghai in the next year make sure you visit here and do the tour because it will be gone forever. So glad we did the tour and thank you Kelly you were amazing.

c

cktom24

5 | 2018-06-18

My family and I loved this tour! Our tour guide Fei Fei had a keen in-depth knowledge on the history of this walled-off historical treasure. She had the perfect balance of patience and fluidity in moving us along, all with a perpetual smile and warm heart. This tour navigated a path some places that we would have NEVER seen on our own. The old-style cluster of houses with generational family inhabitants highlighted communal living, exotic to most Americans. Once upon a time they were grand living quarters, but as the revolution took hold, the affluent were targeted and families uprooted. I highly recommend this specific walking tour for its historical perspective. Amongst the towering modern high-rises of Shanghai lay slivers of its ancient past. Ask for Fei Fei to lead your group and you won't be disappointed!

B

Bryan M

5 | 2018-06-15

Penny is awesome! She is so knowledgeable when it comes to Chinese history and will take you places you will never find on your own, all the while bringing it to life with her stories. At the end of the tour, she gave us her cell phone and told us to call her if we needed anything at all while in Shanghai. Well I sure did! I found myself quite lost one day while touring on my own so I texted her and she sorted me out straight away. I felt I had a real friend in the city. Take this tour, it will not disappoint!

J

Johnson L

5 | 2018-05-20

This was an amazing walking tour. Our tour guide was Penny, who spoke perfect English and seemed to have an endless amount of information to share. You know how sometimes on tours there are awkward periods of silence? Don't expect this from Penny, who seems to know random facts about every street you pass by and ties it into China's colorful history. I also loved how this tour was a bit off the beaten path for tourists - we did plenty of walking tours in Shanghai, but this one felt perhaps the most authentic. Thanks again Penny!

S

Susan b

5 | 2018-05-03

Wow, everyone should take this tour and take it with Penny. It was absolutely amazing. Penny took us places where we did not see any other tourists and I am not sure that many tourists go to the real old city. She had an amazing breadth of historical knowledge but clearly also has gotten to know people in the area. Penny was also just an extremely kind and warm person. My daughter and I got very cold. The day before had been very hot, and it was hot in the morning, but then the temperature dropped and the wind kicked up and we were very cold. Penny took extra time -- her time -- to take us to a shop to buy warmer clothes because she knew we were going on a night walking tour and the night cruise. And she took us to a quite affordable place. It probably added at least an hour to her time. She also then stayed with us until we met our next tour -- all in all, I think Penny spent more than two hours extra with us. We so enjoyed our time with her, seeing things that were stunning in so many ways and learning things it would be hard to have learn anywhere else. We highly recommend this tour.

M

Maureen B

5 | 2018-04-02

This went to a part of Shanghai that I would not have felt comfortable entering without a local guide. Penny showed us the real Shanghai. She was an amazing tour guide. I highly recommended asking for Penny!

Collections This experience is part of these collections

Collections

Old Town 33 Activities

Collections

Walking Tour 39 Activities

Walking Through the Hidden Door of Shanghai Old Town

Shanghai

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