I love Shanghai.  You will love Shanghai.  We will see Shanghai and spend three (3) full days there (which includes two full days of firm visits, one full day of seeing the sites — see below).  While you will have some free time in Shanghai, you won’t have a lot — evenings there will likely be your best bet for solo exploring and adventure.

Here is an article that just came out in the New York Times of some things to see and do in Shanghai.  The article has some good ideas, but the NY Times’ idea of a $500 being “frugal” or doing Shanghai “on a budget” for a few days for this amount is laughable.  If travelling solo, this Midwest boy could do Shanghai for the same amount of time for a lot less than $500, and have even more fun than this Manhattan based author did.

While there, as one of our three days and for some fun and culture, we will likely visit, as a group, the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall and the Shanghai Museum.  We will also likely check out, as a group, the famous Bund (along the Huangpu river and right across the river from the Oriental Pearl TV Tower), the French Concession (a district left over from the Western colonial days of ”let’s carve up China” that still retains many shops and mansions with a French feel), and the famous Yuyuan Garden.  Each place, in my view, is a must see stop while in Shanghai, and I think you will enjoy them (last year’s students certainly did; at the end of the “hit the sites” day you will be pretty worn out). 

After Shanghai, up early in the morning, check out of the hotel and load the bus, and we will be off to Suzhou or Hangzhou …