Shanghai
Shanghai gourmet highlights
After checking in to your luxury boutique hotel in the city, the tour starts with a gentle afternoon walk down
Shanghai's Bund, the former haunt of opium traders and now a glamorous, early-20th-century riverfront esplanade. Later, you head for the quaint
French Concession, where lanes are lined with graceful colonial villas, elegant boutiques and cafés. Dinner is held at a beautiful villa in the French Concession, starting with a traditional tea ceremony and followed by a typically Shanghainese meal.
Day two takes you to the heart of China's food culture and you'll head straight for the 1930's-styled
Whampoa Club for your first dim sum cookery course, followed by a degustation lunch with a perfect view of the city. Run by one of Asia's youngest master chefs,
Jereme Leung (often referred to as the whizzkid), Whampoa Club is a white-hot stop. Here you'll also enjoy meeting the tea sommelier, who will guide you through no less than 50 specialist infusions.
Shanghai's gourmet guides will have you tasting everything from the northern dry-spiced, highly peppered, creative yam-cha dim sum to the extraordinary French-Asian cuisine de voyage menus at
Jade
on 36, the jaw-dropping 36th-floor restaurant of the Shangri-La Hotel. Jade's chef is
Paul Pairet, the internationally acclaimed French chef. You'll experience his molecular cuisine (occasionally compared to El Bulli's Ferran Adria) on the fifth day of your tour.
This is simply a sampling of the tailored gourmet experiences in store (
click here for our detailed itinerary). There's also time to take in some of the city's art galleries, as well as designer fashion boutiques and a visit to the classiest tailor in town before heading out to the country for day trips to Suzhou and Hangzhou and finally, on to Beijing ...
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Suzhou and Hangzhou
Day trips
Centuries old, and preserving a simpler local rhythm and ambience in their
tea houses and canals, Suzhou and Hangzhou are a delight.
Suzhou is known for the recently opened, modern
IM Pei museum and its traditional Chinese gardens – some famous and others hidden away or known only by locals, preserving their ancient mystery.
Hangzhou, is famous for its
silk and tea, as well as its picture-book setting on the West lake with beautiful temples. Here you'll experience yet another Chinese cuisine in the tiny village of
Moganshan – in the mountains just outside Hangzhou. The food reflects the sweet and savoury dishes of old China, with not a hint of fusion in sight.
