All Inclusive Suzhou Gardens and Tongli Water Town Discovery Tour From Shanghai

We went on a wonderful day tour with Shanghai Private tours to visit Suzhou and Tongli water town. Simon was our friendly and extremely knowledgeable tour guide. We had a wonderful time with Simon we felt that he brought our day to life with his knowledge of the history, his anecdotes and his fun and laugher. We bombarded simon with tons of questions and nothing was too much trouble to answer. He took us around some lovely places such as Gardens, Silk factory and The water town including a boat ride and the lunch that he ordered for us was the loveliest food we had on our entire trip. Definitely the highlight of our holiday and when we return to China again we would love to choose Simon as our tour guide if he is available. Thank you Simon for making our holiday a very memorable and enjoyable experience and also a very big thank you to our driver for his help in getting us to where we were going.

We had heard about the "water towns" near Shanghai and chose this tour because it offered a customizable, full-day trip to Suzhou and Tongli using rail transport rather than bus or car which we understood would take more time to get there and back. Our guide Rita met us on time in our hotel lobby. She was an excellent companion for the day -- a great knowledge of the history of the region, a very pleasant personality, and fluent English skills. Rita took us by taxi to the train station and got us quickly through the ticket pick-up process, the station security, and the boarding of an impressive Chinese Rail high-speed train. I don't believe we could have navigated ourselves the complicated process to use the train. Rita saved us a lot of time and stress. The trip takes only 25 minutes from Shanghai to Suzhou by train. A very pleasant trip. On arrival Rita asked us what we wanted to do as priority, and took us first to the Garden of the Master of the Nets. She gave us an in-depth tour of the gardens and buildings, and her recommendation to start here in Suzhou was excellent as we were almost alone, away from the throngs of tourists elsewhere in the city. From there we visited the Silk Museum, and had lunch in central Suzhou at an excellent local restaurant. Rita ordered a range of great dishes. After lunch we did a relaxing boat ride on the charming canal along Pingjiang Lu, followed by a visit to the Gusu District, one of the many other water towns (part of Suzhou) with a stroll along the main shopping street and views of the canals. Rita chose sites that gave us an excellent overview of the history and charm of the area, and avoided the most heavily visited tourist sites. The pace was not rushed and covered a lot. We saw very few foreign tourists throughout the day, which made it a special experience. We then boarded the fast train back to Shanghai and Rita accompanied us by taxi from the station back to the hotel. It was a super day and something we could not have done nearly as well without a guide. Highly recommended. Cost is not cheap, but it included all taxis, train fare, guide, lunch, entry fees to the Garden and the canal boat ride. It is also important to mention that our communication with Sunny in setting up this and other tours in Shanghai was impressive. She speaks good English, answered our messages within hours, and provided advice on how best to structure our tours. Well done.

Tommy was the excellent tour guide for our trip to Suzhou and Zhouzhuang from Shanghai. The train ride from Shanghai to Suzhou was a great experience. He was good company and had an excellent knowledge of the region and was interesting to talk to about China in general. He had many anecdotes and kept us entertained. Another tour recommended for those with a wider interest in China.