Shanghai, Suzhou & Hangzhou

Luxury hotels, villas and select air, yacht, limousine charter services - Planet Collection

The tour is hosted by Luxury Concierge China, a specialist concierge company based in Shanghai. They provide bespoke packages and concierge services for the discerning traveller.

Woolworths TASTE, July issue cover, Gourmet China tour

| GOURMET TOURS

Shanghai, Suzhou & Hangzhou

Beijing

Bund, view from tower at night, Shanghai, Gourmet China tour

Gourmet China Tour: Shanghai, Suzhou & Hangzhou

For many years the 'Paris of the East' played second fiddle to Beijing, but today Shanghai is a dynamic metropolis with world-class restaurants and sophisticated clubs. The chic city's vibrant food scene reflects its extraordinarily cosmopolitan history but a peek into some of Shanghai's most exciting restaurants reveals that eating is more than just a passion for the Shanghainese – it's a lifestyle choice and one they do in high style. Thriving on its frenetic pace and its new global status as it transforms at high speed, it epitomises the contrasts and contradictions of 21-century China while showcasing all the regional cuisines of the nation. Here's a taste of what's in store ...

Text Michelle Snaddon
Photography Courtesy of iStockphoto
Published 5th July 2008

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 ... read more

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.