Last updated on January 15th, 2025

I’m always interested in getting a real taste for local life and culture wherever I go. Lately, I’ve found the best way to do this is by joining high-quality local tours. In Shanghai I came across Wheely Bike Tours. They have several tours to choose from but the one that really caught my eye was the Wake Up Shanghai morning tour. After living in Asia for five years, I have many fond memories of observing local life early in the morning and was now curious about how Shanghai starts the day!

I knew that if I didn’t join, I probably wouldn’t see half of the things I saw during the tour. You’re able to get straight to the heart of the culture in a matter of hours by focusing on what’s truly important. The tour commenced in a residential area where we picked up our bikes not far from the Jing’an temple. I’m not sure about you, but when I wake up, I’m starving! Lucky for Pierre, the first stop was a local breakfast.

Most of you probably know that Shanghai is famous for soup dumplings. The soup dumplings were accompanied with a sweet tofu dish and smoky soy milk.

The tour wasn’t focused on food but did have a few eating stops along the way. After breakfast, we headed to a local park to observe all of the older population keeping active. We saw everything including dancing, Tai Chi, music performances and card games. All of the people had looks of enjoyment on their faces!

After the heartwarming site, we made a stop for another local food. This was to try a onion crepe that was quite spicy. It looked similar to typical crepe but the flavoring was much different.

Then we kept it moving and headed to the Yu Garden which is an ancient part of Shanghai that is about 500 years old. There, we were able to participate in a local tea ceremony and learned all about the benefits from the different types of teas. It was both educational and delicious!

What is a visit to Shanghai without a picture of the Bund? We finished the tour with an amazing vantage point of Shanghai’s tallest buildings.

I’m sure that even the most adventurous explorers would miss a lot of the food and sites that we were able to see on the Wheely Bike Tour. It was fantastic to have all these amazing experiences and learn so many interesting facts along the way with our great guide. I really feel that I was able to see everything that Shanghai has to offer in a short time. I was impressed with the amount of sites that we were able to cover in a few hours. Therefore, the next time you’re in Shanghai I highly recommend you take a Wheely Bike Tour!

Wheely Bike Tours

Tour Company

China

Phone: +86 188 1800 5001