Itinerary
Day 1: Arrival in Shanghai, Shanghai Airports or Train Stations Transfer
Stop At: Shanghai, China
Your driver will be greeted you at Shanghai airport or railway stations with a private car. After getting settled at the hotel, you may explore the downtown area on your own or relax during the remainder of the day to recover from the jet lag.
Duration: 1 hour
No meals included on this day.
No accommodation included on this day.
Day 2: Yu Garden, Chenghuangmiao Market, The Bund & Nanjing Rd, Xiaotaoyuan Mosque, Shanghai Museum, Drive to Suzhou
Stop At: Yu Garden (Yuyuan), No.218 Anren Street, Huangpu District, Shanghai 200010 China
Yuyuan is the most famous garden located in the heart of Shanghai's Old City. The garden was constructed in 1577 by a government officer of the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644) named Pan Yunduan. It took him almost 20 years to construct the garden in an attempt to please his parents for them to enjoy a tranquil and happy time in their high ages. Yuyuan Garden is a maze of pavilions, elaborate rockeries, arched bridges, and goldfish ponds, all encircled by an undulating dragon wall. Occupying an area of 20,000 square meters (about five acres), it nevertheless appears quite expansive, with room for 30 pavilions.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Chenghuang Miao (Yuyuan Garden), Chenghuang Miao (Yuyuan Garden), Shanghai
Chenghuangmiao is a nice place built in typical Chinese architecture style with lots of shops, bars and restaurants.
Duration: 45 minutes
Stop At: The Bund, The Bund, Shanghai
The Bund refers to Shanghai's famous waterfront stretching for 1.6km (1 mile) along the west shore of the Huangpu River. Once a muddy towpath for boats along the river, the Bund was where the foreign powers that entered Shanghai after the Opium War of 1842 erected their distinct Western-style banks and trading houses. From here, Shanghai grew into Asia's leading city in the 1920s and 1930s, a cosmopolitan and thriving commercial and financial center. Many of the awesome colonial structures you see today date from that prosperous time and have become an indelible part of Shanghai's cityscape. The colonial-era buildings that highlight the Bund include the former British Consulate, Customs House, former HSBC Building (the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation), former Shanghai Club (now the Waldorf Astoria Hotel), and the Peace Hotel.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Nanjing Lu (Nanjing Road), Nanjing East Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai 200000 China
The 3.4-mile-long Nanjing Road starts at the Bund in the east and it is the main shopping street of Shanghai and one of the busiest shopping streets in the world. As a result of the Opium War (1839-1842), Shanghai was forced to open to the West as a port. Importing large quantities of foreign goods, it became the earliest shopping street in Shanghai. Over time, Nanjing Road has been restructured, undergoing significant change. For shopping convenience, its eastern end has an all-weather pedestrian arcade. Today over 600 businesses on Nanjing road offer countless famous brands, superior quality, and new fashions. KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and other world-famous food vendors line both sides of the street. Upscale stores include Tiffany, Mont Blanc, and Dunhill.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Shanghai Xiaotaoyuan Mosque, No.52 Xiaotaoyuan Street, Huangpu District, Shanghai 200010 China
Located at Xiaotaoyuan Street in southern Shanghai, the Xiaotaoyan Mosque, also called the Xicheng Mosque, is one of the famous mosques in Shanghai. Shanghai Xiaotaoyuan Mosque was established in 1917 and rebuilt in 1925. Shanghai Xiaotaoyuan Mosque features the Islamic architectural style. Inside the gate there is a rectangular courtyard. On the west side of the hall stands the great prayer hall of 500 square meters, which can hold 200 prayers. The prayer hall has two storeys. In its center there is a vault dome, with minaret on the top. A three-storied hall building stands on the eastern side of the courtyard, and there is a library and a reading room on the second and the third floor respectively, and a sermon room on the first floor. There are the Imams’ rooms, reception room on the southern side of the courtyard.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: People's Square (Renmin Guang Chang), People's Square, Huangpu District, Shanghai 200000 China
The People's Square is a vast public square surrounded by government buildings. It features manicured greenery and, at its heart, the architecturally impressive Shanghai Museum. Prior to 1949, the People's Square was a part of Shanghai Racecourse. After gambling and horse racing were banned by the Communist government, a part of the race course became the People's Square, which included a large avenue and spectator stands for use during parades. Other parts of the race course still remain today. The clubhouse buildings became the Shanghai Art Museum, while part of the race track became People's Park. In the 1990s, major changes were made to the square. The Shanghai Municipal Government was moved from the former HSBC Building. More recent additions include the Shanghai Grand Theater and the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Shanghai Museum (Shanghai Bowuguan), No.201 Renmin Avenue, Shanghai China
Located in the center of Shanghai in People's Square, Shanghai Museum is a distinguished architectural combination of traditional culture and modern spirit, making it unique among many museums in the world. Covering a total area of 39,200 square meters, with a height of 29.5m, the round celestial dome and the square earth base which symbolize the philosophy of a spherical heaven and a square earth, form an extraordinary visual effect. The rich and high-quality collection of 120,000 precious works of art including ancient Chinese bronze, ceramics, painting and calligraphy is specially celebrated in the world.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Suzhou, Suzhou, Jiangsu
Drive to Suzhou late in the afternoon.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Meals included:
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No accommodation included on this day.
Day 3: Humble Administrator's Garden, Suzhou Museum, Taipingfang Mosque, Panmen Gate, Shantang Street, Bullet Train to Hangzhou
Stop At: Humble Administrator's Garden, No.178 Northeast Road, Pingjiang District, Suzhou 215001 China
As one of four great Chinese gardens, the Humble Administrator's Garden is the largest garden in Suzhou and generally regarded as the finest garden in the southern China. Along with other classical gardens of Suzhou City, the Humble Administrator's Garden was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. This garden was founded in 1513 by Wang Xiancheng, a former Imperial official and poet who built the garden to show off his good taste and skills at garden-building. The garden took 16 years to complete, and quickly became famous in China thanks to local poets and artists painting and writing about it. It features pavilions, towers and bridges, all carefully laid out among pools, lakes, rivers and islands. Relax and take in the scenery with atmospheric and inspiring names like Celestial Spring Tower or Distant Fragrance Hall, Flying Rainbow Bridge and Lotus Breeze Pavilion.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Suzhou Museum, 204 Dongbei Jie, Pingjiang District, Suzhou 215000 China
Suzhou Museum was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Chinese-American architect Mr. Ieoh Ming Pei, a Suzhou native. Suzhou Museum is said to be the last design of Mr. Ieoh Ming Pei in his career. Therefore, not only does it become a monumental design building, but also one of the most iconic buildings in Suzhou, merging the traditional Chinese architectural design with the future. The design of the new museum house combines traditional Suzhou architectural style and places the museum between the courtyards to harmonize the building with its surrounding environment. Covering a span of over 10,700 square meters, the museum complex is situated right in the city's historic district alongside the Humble Administrator's Garden. The museum has a display area of 2,200 square meters. It has more than 15,000 pieces in its collections. Most are ancient paintings and calligraphy, ceramics, crafts, unearthed relics and revolution relics.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Panmen Gate, No.1 East Street, Canglang District, Suzhou 215002 China
Panmen Gate is the original entrance to Suzhou and is said to boast a history spanning 2,400 years. It was the only gate in the ancient time to be equipped with both a water entrance and a higher land entrance. The present gate structure was rebuilt in 1986, but the original structure could be traced back to the Yuan dynasty during the peak of the Mongol empire. The Panmen Gate is part of a larger scenic area that houses two other main attractions. Wumen Bridge was the highest bridge in Suzhou, and was the central passageway leading to the land entrance. Ruiguang Pagoda was the ancient city’s first such structure, and its present form has been reconstructed from bricks supported by wooden platforms.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Mosque, F33W+X6P, Gu Tang Jie, Tai Cang Shi, Su Zhou Shi, Jiang Su Sheng, China, 215499
Salat at Taipingfang Mosque which was built in 1928.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Shantang Street, Jinchang District, Suzhou 215008 China
Shantang Street is a famous old pedestrian street in Suzhou. The local Chinese call this street, “Seven-Li Shantang”, whereby seven-li is the measure of distance in old China. Seven-Li is approximately 3.5km. The street connects Changmen in the east with Tiger Hill in the west, with a total length of about 3,829.6 meters. It was added to the list of China's "National Historic and Cultural Streets" in 2015. Construction of the Shantang Canal started in 825 AD, during the Tang Dynasty by Bai Juyi, a poet and the governor of Suzhou, to provide a link between Tiger Hill and the city. The sludge dug out from the construction formed a dam along the north bank of the canal known as Baigong Dam in honor of Bai Juyi. A street was built on dam, which later became the modern-day Shantang Street. The current street can be sectioned into two parts by the Bantang Bridge. The east part is where you can find the shops and traditional houses, on the westyou can find natural landscape up to Tiger Hill.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Hangzhou, Hangzhou, Zhejiang
Take bullet train to Hangzhou (approximately 90 minutes) late in the afternoon.
Duration: 1 hour
Meals included:
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No accommodation included on this day.
Day 4: Cruise on West Lake, Six Harmonies Pagoda, Phoenix Mosque, Qinghefang Ancient Street, Bullet Train to Shanghai
Stop At: West Lake (Xi Hu), West Lake Scenic, Xihu District, Hangzhou 310000 China
West Lake is a freshwater lake located in the western area of Hangzhou’s historic centre. The very definition of classical beauty in China, West Lake is utterly mesmerising: pagoda-topped hills rise over willow-lined waters as boats drift slowly through a idyll of leisurely charm. Walkways, perfectly positioned benches, parks and gardens around the banks of the lake offer a thousand and one vantage points for visitors to admire the faultless scenery. Surrounded by mountains on three sides, West Lake has influenced poets and painters throughout Chinese history for its natural beauty and historic relics, and it has also been among the most important sources of inspiration for Chinese garden designers. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011, described as having "influenced garden design in the rest of China as well as Japan and Korea over the centuries" and reflecting "an idealized fusion between humans and nature".
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: Pagoda of Six Harmonies, No.84 Zhijiang Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou 310000 China
Six Harmonies Pagoda, is a multi-story pagoda located at the foot of Yuelun Hill, facing the Qiantang River. The name of Six Harmonies comes from the six Buddhist ordinances and it is said that the reason for building the pagoda was to calm the tidal bore of the Qiantang River which is one of the world's largest tidal waves and served as a lighthouse. It was originally constructed in 970, destroyed in 1121, and reconstructed fully by 1165, during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). After the current pagoda was constructed of wood and brick during the Southern Song dynasty, additional exterior eaves were added during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing Dynasties (1644–1911). The pagoda is hexagonal in shape, some 59.89 metres (196.5 ft) in height and it has 13 stories, each embellished with beautiful paintings and wall carvings.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Phoenix Temple, Zhongshan Middle Road, Hangzhou China
Hangzhou Phoenix Mosque is one of the four greatest mosques in the coastal area of Southeast China. Hangzhou Phoenix Mosque is also called Zhenjiao Mosque. Hangzhou Phoenix Mosque was built in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and was ruined in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). In 1281, Hangzhou Phoenix Mosque was reconstructed again on its original site. Hangzhou Phoenix Mosque was repaired and expanded during the period from 1451 to 1493 in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the current complex of the Phoenix Mosque was formed. At present, Hangzhou Phoenix Mosque covers an area of about 2,600 square meters, and consists of the entrance hall, the auditorium and the prayer hall, etc. The prayer hall of Hangzhou Phoenix Mosque was built without any girder during the Yuan Dynasty. Many cultural relics and artworks, including some wooden couplets with Arabic calligraphy inscriptions on them and stone steles, are preserved in the mosque.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: QingHeFang, No.113 Gaoyin Street, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou 310000 China
Qinghefang Ancient Street is one of the oldest streets and is the only well persevered antique historic street in Hangzhou. It derived from the Southern Song Dynasty and became prosperous in the Qing Dynasty. The buildings in the street were mostly constructed during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Qinghefang is a crowded and bustling pedestrian street, with makeshift puppet theatres, teahouses, and gift and curio stalls selling everything from stone teapots to ginseng and silk. It’s also home to several traditional medicine shops, including the Huqing Yutang Chinese Medicine Museum, which is an actual dispensary and clinic.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Shanghai, Shanghai
Take bullet train back to to Shanghai (approximately 1 hour) late in the afternoon.
Duration: 1 hour
Meals included:
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No accommodation included on this day.
Day 5: Departure from Shanghai, Transfer to Shanghai Airports or Train Stations
Stop At: Shanghai, Shanghai
Private transfer (without guide) to Shanghai airports or train stations for your departure flight/train. Wish you a pleasant journey and thank you for traveling with IslamiChina.
Duration: 1 hour
No meals included on this day.
No accommodation included on this day.