Gay Travel China: Space Age Shanghai

No other skyline in the world compares to Shanghai's. Slip into a world rooted in history yet decades ahead of its time, add a great gay-friendly hotel, one of Purple Dragon's renowned private tour guides, throw in a little nightlife and you have a holiday in Shanghai, China's futuristic window on the galaxy.

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Where We Shine: Purple Dragon is Asia's most famous gay and lesbian travel resource. Your tour includes a private guide who will give you his undivided attention. You'll never be herded around on a bus with 40 strangers. Our guests often remark that the highlight of their holiday was the charming company of our guides and their unique insights into local culture.

China's Hip, Liberal Window on the World

Shanghai is constantly shedding its old skin for a gleaming high-tech razzle dazzle that proclaims its official party slogan: "Progress is the irrefutable argument." For well over one century Shanghai has been China's window on the rest of the world. It is hip, Colorful and socially liberal, with a large gay community and some of the best shopping and restaurants in Asia. The city reinvents itself constantly, which presents complications for visitors who find that their guidebooks, published last year, are now hopelessly out of date. Our local guides will ensure that you can navigate the waves of change and help you discover the wide-eyed wonders of Space Age Shanghai. You do not have to be gay to enjoy this package. Our mainstream guests choose us because they know they will get something better from a gay company.

Private transportation from the airport to your hotel. If you arrive early in the day, take a stroll in any direction and encounter a cross-section of Shanghai's history, from European-style tree-lined avenues and Russian-influenced merchant shop-house architecture, to hyper-modern shopping avenues where gray communist clothing shops are gradually giving up the ghost for Big Mac outlets. Our local guide is available to join you for dinner and introduce you to the local gay scene tonight or on another night during your stay (Friday or Saturday nights are busiest). Don't miss a chance to stroll along the spectacular Bund, China's former Wall Street in anything-goes pre-communist days, with beautiful old flapper-era banks and hotels lining the riverfront and new Shanghai rising like a futuristic space port on the opposite side of the river.

Day Two

Breakfast at your leisure. Your guide will collect you after breakfast. Your tour today is free-plan, so your guide can suggest sightseeing to match your personal interests, but we recommend that first-time visitors see the following places at some time during their stay...Longhua Ta is the most colorful temple in Shanghai (give the Jade Buddha temple a skip) and morning, when the monks are most active, is a great time to visit. It's in the suburbs, a short ride by elevated super highway (a great way to get a sense of Shanghai's spaceage sprawl). You should also visit the beautifully maintained Ming dynasty pleasure garden at Yu Yuan and afterwards stroll around the kitschy Lao Jie shopping avenue -- a sort of Disney version of old China for the modern masses (but don't buy the overpriced souvenirs being hawked here). A better place to bargain for gifts and antiquey items is Dongtai Road, which retains its original Shanghainese ambience of crumbling merchant tenements and old curio shops (visit now before this place gets an official scrub-up like the Duolun walking avenue). Streetside noodle shops offer one of Shanghai's most delicious pleasures: fried and steamed dumplings. Careful, these pleasure bombs have a tendency to explode when bitten into (to the delight of laughing locals who know to bend low over their plates while noshing). For those shop-a-holics craving cheap faux-brand goods, we know a local market specializing in well-made knock-offs (or "copywrong" products as your guide will joke). People's Square is home to more spectacular architecture, including the fabulous Shanghai Museum with its must-see collections of superb Chinese traditional arts. Late afternoon and evenings are a good time to visit Xintiandi, a trendy complex of boutique shops and restaurants housed in restored heritage buildings. Our favorite way to cap off the day is sipping a cappuccino at Starbucks over on the Pudong side of the river while taking in the sunset over the Bund.

Free time until your private transportation to the airport to discover more delights in nearby Beijing, Xian, or Hong Kong and Macau. If you prefer, we can drop you at the MagLev train station. The ride to the airport takes only minutes and the train reaches top speeds of over 400 km per hour.

Purple Dragon
choose from these fine gay friendly
BEIJING HOTELS

	Value: THE METROPOLE
	Superior:THE METROPOLE
	Deluxe: SOFITEL HYLAND
	Faaabulous:RADISSON PLAZA
	Ultimate: SOFITEL HYLAND

Includes private airport transportation, gay-friendly hotel accommodation with tax and service, nightlife guide on one night during stay, free plan day tour with private guide. Not included: airfare, local transportation, admissions, meals or beverages, gratuities, features not specifically mentioned in the itinerary, or items of a purely personal nature. Please buy lunch for your day guides and soft drinks for your night guide at clubs you visit.

Custom vacations are our specialty. If this travel package is not exactly what you are looking for, we may be able to modify it to make it a perfect fit.