The Bund (Waitan)
- Address:Shanghai
- Admission:Free
The Bund (Waitan) Reviews
We've found 15 The Bund (Waitan) reviews from Viator.com travelers and members: what they loved, what they liked and what they think could be improved. It's all here to help you make the most of your next trip.
The Bund area and former French Concession area were the highlights.
This was the most disappointing of my tours in China - I was the only one on the tour which had its advantages but I felt the disadvantages more. The guide Joe was ok - he gave the bare minimum information and was not as informative as Jackie in Beijing. In many places when I asked for more time at a certain place, I was left on my own but I noticed many other guides walking around with tourists and giving lots of information (at the Bund, Old Town and Museum). I dont know if this was not included in the agenda but should be as the guide is there with us anyways. We also went to a pearl factory and jade shop and I really felt pressured to buy and felt this was more a shopping excursion than a sightseeing trip. Again this was shorter than stated (started at 9 AM and I was back at the hotel by 3:30 PM - Joe had offered that I take another 15 mins more at the Old Town but even with that it would have been less than 7 hours).
Excellent tour, provided insight to old Shanghai mixed with 1930's European buildings on the Bund. The traditional entertainment at the restaurant during lunch was a surprise.Our guide, Fenny, was enthusiastic and knowledgeable which made the tour thoroughly enjoyable.
Enjoyed visiting the French Quarter and the Bund
guide once again was great, brilliant command of English, only thing was we felt a little rushed from one place to the next. jade buddha temple is amazing, fantastic sites to see. lunch was great, good food in a clean restaurant. we visited a silk factory which was interesting to see how silk is made and there's tons of things to buy. the weather wasn't great on our trip so we had to cut short the walk through the xintandi area and i wished we'd had gone lower down on the bund and seen the historic buildings versus focusing on the waterfront. but great day trip to see a lot of key sights and find your bearings for the next day.
The first stop on the tour was the Shanghai Museum. We had around 1 hour to visit the museum, however the guide did not follow and instead waited in the day or went somewhere else. We also visited the Fresh Water Pearl Gallery which is basicly just a shop wanting to see you stuff. Durin this time the guide also waited in the car. I did not eat any of the lunch, however the portions were very big. I asked the other person on the tour what they thought of the food and they said it tasted "cheap". We also walked along the Bund. During this time the guide offered to take photo's for us. We also visited the Yuyuan Garden's, however this was very rushed! This tour needs to significantly improve. The tour info page is very misleading. I booked this tour thinking it would be a full day tour, but instead the tour started when I was picked up at my hotel 1hr and 15 minutes later than advertised. The tour finished at 2pm, however it stated the tour finishes at 6pm!. I also took Huangpu River Cruise and Bund City Lights Evening Tour of Shanghai in the evening which it is stated starts at 6:30pm, however because this tour finished 4 hours earlier than advertised I had to wait for four hours. The guide seemed very rushed throughout most of the entire tour. I also noticed that the guide was having to work long hours, from 8am to 8pm as he also does the river cruise tour. I want to note, the guide was friendly allowing me to borrow his umbrella for the day. Overal though this tour was really disappointing. Sadly I wouldn't recommend this tour.
In my opinion this tour isn't worth the money. The boat was very crowded. You can enjoy better views of the Shanghai Skyline from the bund in your own time for free.
While the lights and skyline of Shanghai are lovely from the Bund, this tour experience was quite awful. We hope it was just the Expo crowds, but we were abandoned by our guide in the boat cruise queue for 40 uncomfortable minutes amidst a throng of drunken, shoving and rude non-English speaking tourists. It was impossible to hear the English narration on the cruise, so we have no idea what we were seeing. While the Nanjing Road trolley ride was somewhat better we were also accosted constantly by street vendors. We wish our guide would have a) protected us from the vendors more and b) provided some actual guide info/helped us understand what we were seeing. And most importantly, please do not EVER abandon a group on the street alone -- we paid for a service we did not receive.
This is a wonderful way to see the lights of the Bund in the evening and walk the mall. The tour guide a young female, was excelent, good knowledge and good english. Most helpful directing us to all our needs.
We enjoyed the evening cruise although you can get the tickets on your own for a much cheaper price. The second part of the tour was pretty lame. We took a trolley up the pedestrian street of The Bund. It took about 5 minutes and that constituted our "Bund City Lights Evening Tour". That part of the tour was a huge rip-off.
Tour guide was very informative. We had a private guide as there were no other people on he tour due to the time of year. We were taken for our lunch, & I must say this was the only bad meal we had during our nineteen day trip. Very little choice, & what there was to eat was not very good. We were unable to walk along the Bund area due to the construction work which was going on for Expo 2010.
Loved some of the tour. Loved the lunch. The guide was helpful. This tour could be changed to include more time in the tourist areas to buy souvenirs and to eliminate the Pearl Gallery, the Silk Factory and the Tea House. I did not see the Oriental TV tower or the Bund because of construction.
I was disappointed. Our highlight of the trip was supposed to be the famous Bund but we merely drove past it. It was not worth the amount we paid.
Nice okay tour, we ended up with pretty much a private tour for the morning portion. The museum was fine, but we were on our own for that portion and could have gone ourselves. It was quite cold so we only did a quick visit to the Bund. We had seen quite a few temples by this point so the Jade Buddha Temple wasn't too exciting. We did enjoy a quick medicinal tea tasting. Overall if you're in Shanghai and looking to see a few sites, not a bad way to go. We had gone on a lot of tours, though, on our trip and this one didn't stand out. Again, it was cold though! Would probably be really nice to walk around the Bund in warmer weather...although you really don't need a tour guide for that.
Too long...some of the people left their hotels at 7:30am and didn't return until after 8pm. The highlights of Shanghai could be done in a couple of hours. Should've skipped the gardens this time of year--nothing there--and left more time at museum. Also, need to put in your description that all tours in China include a mandatory shopping stop at a factory. This one had 2 of them. Could've skipped the silk and just done the pearls. Jade Buddha Temple was the best. The stop at the Bund was at a location that had nothing there. Best to do the temple, the museum, Peoples Park and the Bund. Those are the highlights and can be done in 4-5 hours including one shopping stop.
