Retreat from the City Bustle: Day Trips From Shanghai

Enjoy the final days of foliage-fabulous autumn with a day trip or short weekend break into the delightful countryside and towns surrounding Shanghai. Here are some of our favourite retreats from the city bustle.

Suzhou

Just 40 minutes by train from ‘The Paris of the Orient’ lies ‘The Venice of the East’. Suzhou is most famous for its historic UNESCO-protected myriad of interlocking canals and gardens created from rock formations, small lakes, pagodas and delicate greenery, but the architecturally striking Suzhou Museum is also worth a peek for its second-to-none collection of ancient Chinese art, calligraphy, and handmade crafts. Top off a day of wandering with a pre-booked meal at centuries-old Songhe Lou, specialising in local delicacies like ‘songshu guiyu’ (squirrel-shaped Mandarin fish) and ‘huangmen heman’ (braised river eel).

Suzhou Museum / 204 Dongbei Lu / +86 512 6757 5666 / 9am-4pm Tue-Sun / szmuseum.com

Songhe Lou / 72 Taijian Long / +86 512 6727 2285 / 8am-9pm daily

The Water Towns

Dotted about between Shanghai and Suzhou is a series of 10 eye-wateringly picturesque C.11th river-perched towns, each with varying journey times from the city and shaped differently depending on the body of water they sit upon.

Perhaps the most commercial, but painstakingly preserved towns are nest-like Zhouzhuang and Zhujiajiao, awash with narrow lanes, arched bridges, quaint waterways and the ancient lantern-strung stone houses that line them. At a two-hour drive away, cross-shaped Nanxun is the farthest from Shanghai but, for this reason, also the loveliest and least mobbed; star-structured Xitang is beloved for its distinctive ‘langpeng’ (sheltered waterside streets); while quiet Tongli is handily placed for combining with a visit to the gardens of Suzhou.

Moganshan

Want to make a weekend of it? Shanghai’s answer to the Catskills is a relatively easy 2.5hr drive by private car, making it the mountain getaway of choice for the social set. Currently in the throes of gentrification, more than a century after its heyday in the 1800s when missionaries sought respite from the city here, Moganshan village and mountaintop is at its busiest in July and August. We suggest visiting during the cool, quiet autumn/winter months to fully enjoy the fresh air, breath-taking views and dense alpine woodland crisscrossed by hiking and biking trails. Many of the colonial villas have been converted into eco-luxe accommodation; destination resort Naked Stables is head and shoulders above the rest.