The Shanghai skyline glowing gold at dusk across the Huangpu River
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Shanghai / Hangzhou · East China

Jiangnan & Modern China

China at its most cosmopolitan — and, an hour away, at its most serene. Tournament fairways, design hotels and the still water of West Lake.

Ideal Length
4–6 nights
split between city and lake
Golf
3–4 rounds
incl. Sheshan International
Best Season
Mar–Jun · Sep–Nov
spring mists, golden autumn
Pairs With
Beijing · Yunnan
4.5 h by rail · 3 h by air
The Journey

Two Chinas, an hour apart.

Shanghai is the China that startles first-time visitors — a skyline that seems to have arrived from the future, set above a river lined with century-old banking halls. Then a train slips south for an hour and you are in Jiangnan, the land "south of the river": West Lake under morning mist, tea terraces, water towns threaded with canals. No other journey holds both within a single week.

Our Shanghai runs on private access — a table above the lights of the Bund, the art-deco lanes of the old concessions, the back rooms of the city's best kitchens. Hangzhou is the counterweight: a dawn boat on West Lake before the crowds arrive, Longjing tea picked and poured on the hillside where it grows, an evening in a canal town after the day-trippers have gone.

The golf is the strongest in mainland China. Sheshan International has hosted a world-tour event for two decades; Fuchun Resort lays its fairways through a tea-terraced river valley painters have loved for six centuries; and on Chongming Island, a wild modern links runs through dunes at the mouth of the Yangtze.

The Golf

Tournament turf, garden fairways, wild dunes.

Three rounds, three different games — the strongest stretch of golf in mainland China, all within two hours of the Bund.

The grandstand and closing hole at Sheshan International during a world-tour event, Shanghai Tournament crowds ringing a green at Sheshan International, Shanghai A drive launched past the red world-championship sign on the 9th tee at Sheshan A player on a Sheshan fairway framed by pampas grass and the lake beyond Galleries filling the grandstands around the closing green at Sheshan International
Signature round
Sheshan Hill · Shanghai

Sheshan International

China's most famous course, and for two decades the host of its flagship world-tour event — the closing stretch around the old quarry has decided more champions than any other holes in Asia. A Nelson & Haworth parkland of mature camphors, sculpted bunkering and a château clubhouse, it is also a strictly private member's club. We arrange guest play on your behalf, with caddies and a long lunch on the terrace where the trophies are handed out.

Designer
Nelson & Haworth
Setting
Tournament parkland, quarry holes
Claim to fame
World Top 100 · host of a world-tour event
Pair with
The Bund, the old concessions, private dining
Fuchun Resort fairways and a Jiangnan-style resort mirrored in still water, Hangzhou Morning mist rolling over the forested hills above Fuchun Resort The pavilions of Fuchun Resort across still water, green hills rising behind Cloud and mist pouring over the mountains behind a bunkered green at Fuchun Resort Golfers walking a Fuchun fairway beneath terraced walls of Longjing tea The stone gateway and shaded courtyard of Fuchun Resort, hills beyond
A painter's valley
Fuchun River Valley · Hangzhou

Fuchun Resort

Six hundred years ago the Fuchun valley inspired one of China's greatest paintings; today it holds the only course in Asia routed through the rolling hills of a working tea plantation. Fairways sweep beneath terraced walls of Longjing tea, greens sit mirrored in still water below the resort's grey-tiled pavilions, and the mist comes and goes all morning. It is golf found nowhere else in the game — unhurried, quiet, and best followed by tea picked a few metres from the fairway.

Designer
Daniel Obermeyer
Setting
Tea-plantation hills — the only one of its kind in Asia
Best season
Mar–May, Sep–Nov
Pair with
West Lake, Longjing tea, a night at the resort
Evening light over a fairway threading between sand dunes at Yangtze Dunes, Chongming Island An aerial view of a green ringed by dark native dunes at Yangtze Dunes Links holes winding through dunes and wetland at the mouth of the Yangtze A green glowing at sunset among native dunes at Yangtze Dunes
A wild links
Chongming Island · Shanghai

Yangtze Dunes

An hour from the Bund, on an island at the mouth of the Yangtze, lies the most surprising round in China — a true links running through native dunes and wetlands, shaped by the celebrated Australian firm OCM. Firm turf, river wind, blind shoulders and greens tucked into the sand: golf that feels closer to the Irish coast than to anything else in Asia, with the world's busiest shipping lane gliding past beyond the dunes.

Designer
OCM — Ogilvy, Cocking & Mead
Setting
Links through river dunes and wetland
Best season
Mar–Jun, Sep–Dec
Pair with
A city day in Shanghai — links by morning, the Bund by night

A fourth round is easily woven in — Shanghai's private parkland clubs and the lake courses around Hangzhou are chosen for your dates and the season. We'll recommend the right pairing when we design your journey.

Bamboo steamers of xiaolongbao soup dumplings on a Shanghai table
After the Round

The day does not end at the 18th.

Shanghai eats like the great port city it has always been: bamboo steamers of xiaolongbao in the lanes, hairy crab in season, chef's tables hidden inside concession villas, and the best cellars in Asia. An hour south, Hangzhou answers at Jiangnan's gentler pace — West Lake fish, beggar's chicken, tea-smoked dishes served at tables on the water.

For golfers, the evening becomes the kind of dinner that makes the city feel personal — booked, briefed and waiting by the time you've putted out.

Journeys Featuring Shanghai & Hangzhou

Where Jiangnan fits in a journey.

Shanghai and Hangzhou anchor the eastern leg of most of our routes — the elegant counterpoint to the capital's grandeur. Two sample journeys pass through; both are starting points, never scripts.

A palace-style clubhouse above bunkered fairways, misty hills behind
6–7 Nights · 3 Rounds

First-Time Golf China

Beijing + Hangzhou
Imperial China, Great Wall golf and the quiet elegance of West Lake — Shanghai is easily added for a modern city close.
Tailor This Journey →
The Complete Route An oceanfront golf hole on the cliffs of Shanqin Bay, Hainan
14 Nights / 15 Days · 7–9 Rounds

The Grand China Golf Journey

Beijing + Hangzhou + Yunnan + Hainan
Open in the capital, finish on a tropical coast — the most complete way to experience Golf China.
Tailor This Journey →

Or build Jiangnan into your own.

Add days, swap rounds for culture, bring non-golfers — every journey is designed from scratch. Tell us about your party and we'll shape the route around you.

Request a Private Proposal
Signature Experiences

Jiangnan, arranged privately.

Built on relationships on the ground, set up for your party alone — never an excursion from a brochure.

The lit towers of Pudong rising over the Huangpu River at night, seen from the water
Shanghai · The Huangpu

The Bund by private yacht

Cast off at dusk with the river to yourselves — champagne on deck as a century of banking halls glides past one rail and the towers of Pudong the other.

A traditional boat gliding across West Lake through morning greenery, Hangzhou
Hangzhou · West Lake

West Lake before the world wakes

A private boat at dawn, tea poured on the water, the pagodas still wrapped in mist — the lake the poets meant.

Pickers with baskets working the terraced Longjing tea fields above Hangzhou
Hangzhou · Longjing Village

Pick the harvest yourself

Basket in hand, into the dragon-well terraces with a grower's family — pick the spring leaves, watch them roasted, then taste your own harvest on the hillside.

The clock tower and domes of the Bund's heritage banking halls in golden evening light, Shanghai
Shanghai · The Old Concessions

The concessions, decoded

A private historian walks you through the plane-tree lanes of the former French Concession and the great banking halls of the Bund — a century of the city's story, told building by building.

These are a beginning, not a menu — tell us what your party loves and we'll find its Jiangnan equivalent.

Where You Stay

A skyline, then a lake.

Two addresses, two tempos — the city at full voltage, then Jiangnan calm.

The lit towers of Shanghai seen from above at night
Shanghai · Above the Lights

Sleep over the skyline

Our Shanghai favourites trade lobby grandeur for height and design — rooms where the wall is glass and the city performs below, a short walk from the Bund's heritage façades and the best tables in Asia.

For travelers who prefer plane trees to towers, the converted villas of the old concessions make an equally good base — we'll match the address to your taste.

A pagoda rising above the lotus-fringed shore of West Lake, Hangzhou
Hangzhou · On West Lake

Jiangnan calm between rounds

In Hangzhou the address is the experience — the likes of the Four Seasons on West Lake, all temple bells, still water and gardens that blur into the lakeshore. Mornings begin with mist on the water; evenings end with it rolling back in.

For the Fuchun round, a night at the resort itself turns the course's valley into your view — tea terraces from the bath, mist from the breakfast table.

Specific hotels, room categories and the level of comfort you choose are set out in your private proposal — every address booked entirely on your behalf.

Extend the Journey

Jiangnan is the hinge.

East China sits at the centre of every longer route — the capital to the north, the snow peaks to the southwest:

The Great Wall snaking over ridgelines at golden hour, north of Beijing
4.5 h by high-speed rail

Imperial China

The Forbidden City, golf beneath the Great Wall and dinner on its ramparts — the natural opening chapter.

Explore →
Naxi rooftops with Jade Dragon Snow Mountain glowing at sunset, Yunnan
3 h by air

South of the Clouds

Snow-mountain fairways, the Tea Horse Road and China at its most distinctive.

Explore →
Start Planning

Begin your journey in Jiangnan.

Tell us a little about your trip and a travel designer will reply within one business day — with no obligation.

Request a Private Proposal