THE PRIVATE ART OF SHANGHAI
SHANGRÉVE
Shanghai, Privately Inherited.
CURATED EXPERIENCES
MORE THAN A DESTINATION
A LIVING CULTURE
We are a group of Shanghai natives, dedicated to introducing the real Shanghai — its culture, its people, its hidden gems — to discerning travelers from around the world. Through bespoke experiences, we invite you to see, feel and live a more authentic side of this extraordinary city.
WELLNESS
Traditional therapies, mindful practices, and inner balance.
NIGHTLIFE
From hidden speakeasies to iconic rooftops, discover Shanghai's vibrant after-dark scene.
LOCAL EXPERIENCES
Share a home-cooked meal, learn local crafts, and taste the true flavors of Shanghai.
INTANGIBLE CULTURE
From qipao fittings to traditional arts, experience the timeless beauty of Chinese heritage.
SIGHTSEEING
Iconic landmarks and hidden corners, from the Bund to the French Concession.
WHY SHANGHAI
AN ETERNAL CITY OF CONTRASTS
Where East meets West, tradition embraces modernity, and every street tells a story — Shanghai is not just a place to visit, but a world to be felt.
Wellness
Slow down and restore with authentic Chinese wellness practices.
Traditional Chinese Wellness
Choose from professional TCM massage, warm moxibustion, herbal foot baths and private tai chi sessions in quiet gardens. We arrange trusted, hygienic wellness venues away from tourist-oriented spas.
- Private tai chi & qigong — taught one to one in a heritage garden, or at sunrise on the Bund before the city wakes.
- Tuina & acupressure — a two-hour session with a fourth-generation master in a 1930s villa; the same hands, the same room, for years.
- Moxibustion & herbal therapy — prescribed after a short consultation, translated line by line for you.
- Herbal foot bath ritual — with herbs picked that week, taken in the late afternoon with tea.
- In-suite treatments — practitioners who travel to your hotel, table and linens brought in.
Sessions of 60–120 minutes · One guest at a time · Best from April to June and September to October
How We Arrange It
Every practitioner we work with has been vetted in person — hygiene, privacy and, above all, skill. There are no membership sales, no spa menus pushed at the door, and no commission-led upgrades. Your escort translates during the consultation, and sessions are fitted around your day rather than the other way round. Guests arriving from long flights often take the first session within hours of landing; it is the best cure for jet lag we know.
Nightlife
Shanghai after dark: sophisticated, low-key and memorable.
Hidden Bars & Live Music
Skip noisy commercial clubs. We take you to classic speakeasies, rooftop lounges with Bund views and tiny live jazz venues favoured by locals. Ideal for small groups and couples.
- A jazz room with twelve seats — and a bartender who has been there since the nineties. Table held under our name.
- Speakeasies behind unmarked doors — one hides behind a working shopfront; the password changes monthly.
- Rooftops at dusk — timed to the half hour when the Bund lights come on along the river.
- A private whisky or tea-cocktail tasting — poured and explained by the bar's head mixer, for groups of four or more.
- Supper after midnight — congee, wontons and cold dishes at the places the industry eats in after service.
An evening across two or three rooms · Reservations held under our name · Ideal for two to eight guests
The Evening, Arranged
A night out here works best as a progression rather than a single address — a first drink where the light is, a second where the music is, and a third where the view is. We sequence the evening around what Shanghai is doing that week: which jazz trio is in residence, which rooftop has reopened for the season, which pop-up is worth the detour and which is not. Your driver waits between rooms, and the last stop is always yours to choose.
Local Experience
Taste and live Shanghai like a local resident.
Daily Shanghai Moments
Join local morning breakfast stalls for the “Four Great Morning Dishes”, book a home-style Shanghainese family feast, learn to make xiaolongbao, or play mahjong in a community lounge.
- Street breakfast at six — the “Four Great Morning Dishes” in a shikumen lane, while the neighbourhood is still itself.
- A home-cooked Benbang feast — a family table by invitation only; eight dishes, the recipes from the grandmother of the house.
- Xiaolongbao workshop — with a chef who supplies three of the city's hotels; you fold, you steam, you eat your own.
- Wet market walk — with the vendor who knows which season is lying about itself; talk, taste, and buy your own breakfast.
- Mahjong in a community lounge — taught properly, with tea, by players who have forty years of table manners to explain.
- An afternoon on Wukang Road — coffee, bakeries and the plane trees, walked at the pace of the street.
A morning or a full day · Family tables of four to eight · Year-round; breakfast is best March to November
Eating With, Not At
The difference between a food tour and a table is invitation. Every family we eat with is a household we have known for years — you are introduced as guests, not sold seats. Menus are set the week you travel, around what is good at the market; dietary needs are told to the kitchen in advance and remembered, not re-asked. The street stalls we use are the ones our own team eats at, and the workshop kitchen is the same one that supplies the hotels.
Intangible Culture
Meet living heritage crafts of Shanghai.
Heritage & Handcraft
Work directly with inheritors of traditional crafts. Try qipao fitting & custom tailoring, Su-style embroidery, paper cutting and other protected intangible cultural activities.
- Qipao atelier, Maoming Road — the pattern cut to your measurements in a single sitting; the silk chosen from the cupboard, not the shelf.
- Su-style embroidery — a studio where one panel takes a year; you hold the needle for the hour that interests you.
- Paper cutting & folk art — with inheritors of the craft, in rooms that are also their homes.
- Seal carving & ink — your own stone seal, cut while you wait and stamped on everything you own thereafter.
- Tea with the family that grew it — poured, not performed; the same leaves the household drinks.
Half day, or stitched into a journey · Finished pieces couriered home · Ateliers booked a week ahead
The Makers, Not the Shops
The crafts survive in rooms, not storefronts — an inheritor's flat above a lane, a workshop behind a silk mill, a kitchen table with three generations of scissors on it. We take you to the makers we have known for years, introduce you properly, and leave you to the work. If a piece is begun for you — a qipao, a seal, an embroidery — the second fitting can be done by video from home, and the finished piece is couriered to your door. Most guests choose exactly that.
Curated Shopping
Thoughtful shopping beyond mass tourist markets.
Design, Silk & Tea
We guide you to independent local designer boutiques, premium silk ateliers, specialty tea houses and small private showrooms, avoiding overpriced souvenir traps.
- Handwoven silk & textile studios — looms you can watch running, grades explained honestly before prices are quoted.
- Specialty tea sourcing — a buying session with the shop's own tasting table; you leave with what you ranked first, not what they did.
- Independent local designers — the showrooms off the main streets where the city's own designers sell.
- Antiques with a curator — a morning in the covered market, one eye on what is genuinely old and one on what merely looks it.
- Bespoke tailoring — measured on day one, fitted on day three, couriered home when finished.
Half or full day · VAT refund assistance on departure · Purchases couriered home on request
Buying Well
Shopping here goes wrong the same way everywhere: the wrong street, the wrong day, a guide on commission. We keep none of the second and refuse the third — our margin is the itinerary, not your purchase. Prices are explained before you are quoted them, shipping is arranged the same afternoon for anything larger than a scarf, and if the honest answer is that the thing you are looking at is a reproduction, we will say so. What you buy should outlast the trip.
