Shanghai · Old City
A Ming-dynasty garden of rockeries, koi ponds and dragon-topped walls, begun in 1559 in the heart of Shanghai's old walled city. Cross the zigzag bridge past the teahouse, find the five-tonne Exquisite Jade Rock, then eat soup dumplings in the lantern-lit bazaar.
Independent guideTickets and experiences hand-picked by our editors.
Tours
In the centre, the private full day with the most reviews in Shanghai. On the left, the one tour built around the garden itself, ticket and tea included; on the right, a half day of old and new. Every card opens a full tour page.
Garden + tea
★ 5.02 to 2.5 hoursFree cancellationAn hour inside the walled garden, then the Qing-era lanes of the old town and Yuyuan Old Street. The garden ticket and a tea tasting are included, with downtown hotel pickup.
Most reviewed
★ 5.07 to 8 hoursFree cancellationYour own guide for a full day: the Bund, Yu Garden and the old town, the Jade Buddha Temple and Nanjing Road. Garden entry and lunch come only with the All Inclusive option.
Half day
★ 5.04 to 5 hoursFree cancellationHalf a day with a private guide: the old town, an hour in Yu Garden, the Bund, then the Shanghai Tower. Entry fees are extra, and lunch or dinner can be added.
Flexible
★ 5.04 hours
Layover
★ 5.06 to 8 hours
Water town
★ 5.08 hours
Evening
★ 4.93 to 4 hours
Night bazaar
★ 5.03 to 4 hours
Best value
★ 4.69 hours
Tip-based
★ 4.94 hoursCompare
Half of the tours that say "Yu Garden" walk you through the free bazaar and never pass the ticket gate. That can be exactly what you want after dark. Just know which one you are buying.
| Tour | Where | In the garden | Best for | Length | From | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private Full-Day Shanghai: Old and New Highlights | Shanghai, hotel pickup | 50 min; entry only on All Inclusive | First-timers with one day for the city | 7 to 8 hours | $115 | Book |
| Yu Garden and Old Town Private Tour with Tea | Yu Garden and the old town | 60 min, entry included | The garden in depth, with tea | 2 to 2.5 hours | $81 | Book |
| 4-Hour Private Shanghai City Tour | Old town, Yu Garden, Bund | 60 min, entry extra | Half a day of old and new | 4 to 5 hours | $93 | Book |
| 4-Hour Flexible Private Shanghai Tour | Bund, Jade Buddha, Yu Garden | 60 min if chosen, entry extra | Picking your own sights | 4 hours | $115 | Book |
| Private Shanghai Airport Layover Tour | Bund, Yu Garden, French Concession | 80 min, entry extra | A long stop at Pudong | 6 to 8 hours | $151 | Book |
| Zhujiajiao Water Town and Shanghai Private Day Tour | Zhujiajiao, Yu Garden, Bund | 40 min, entry included | Water town and city in one day | 8 hours | $246 | Book |
| Zhujiajiao, Yu Garden and Bund Join-In Bus Tour | Yu Garden, City God Temple, Zhujiajiao | 60 min Tue to Sun, entry included | The lowest price with a ticket | 9 hours | $67 | Book |
| Private Evening Tour with Huangpu River Cruise | Yuyuan Old Street, river, Xintiandi | No: Old Street only | The skyline from the river | 3 to 4 hours | $128 | Book |
| Night River Cruise and Yuyuan Bazaar | Huangpu river and Yuyuan Old Street | No: bazaar only | The bazaar lights and a cruise | 3 to 4 hours | $142 | Book |
| 2-Hour Shanghai Street Food Tour in the Old City | Yuyuan Old Street, meet at Yuyuan Garden Metro | No: food stops on Old Street | Eating your way through the old city | 2 hours | $65 | Book |
| Shanghai City Guided Walking Tour | People's Square to the Bund and City God Temple | No: 20 min by the City God Temple | Budget travellers who tip | 4 hours | $5 | Book |
Private tours are priced per person on a sliding scale: the from-price is the lowest tier, and one or two travellers pay more per head. The garden is closed on Mondays except public holidays.
Before you book
Yu Garden is a walled private garden that the official Pan Yunduan began in 1559 for his father, and it is still walled today. Inside are about two hectares of rockeries, ponds, halls and corridors, the porous Exquisite Jade Rock and the grey dragon walls. It has opening hours, a ticket and a weekly day off.
Around it lies the Yuyuan bazaar: the red and gold shopping streets of Yuyuan Old Street, the City God Temple, the Nine-Turn Bridge and the Huxinting teahouse on its pond. That part is free, open late, and the scene in most photos of "Yu Garden". The bridge and teahouse stand outside the South Gate, so you can see them without a ticket. Listings mix the two up all the time. Read the itinerary, not the title.
RMB for an adult ticket in spring and autumn, 30 RMB in summer and winter. That is about $4 to $6, so a tour is paid for the guide, the car and the rest of the day, not the gate.
09:00 to 16:30, last entry 16:00. Closed every Monday except public holidays.
Rarely. Buy at the gate windows or in the official "上海豫园" WeChat mini-program.
One to two hours on your own. Tours give it 40 to 80 minutes.
Not to get in. A guide adds the story, the language and the logistics of a full day.
Your day
Two hours for the garden and old town on their own, seven or eight with the rest of Shanghai. This is the shape of it.
Your guide meets you in the hotel lobby. Small groups ride in a Didi car, bigger ones in a minivan.
15 to 30 minutesThrough the gate before the midday crowds: rockeries, the Jade Rock, the dragon walls and the halls.
40 to 80 minutesOut past the zigzag bridge into the bazaar, the City God Temple and the lanes of the old walled city.
30 to 80 minutesA tea tasting on the short tour; on a full day, the Bund, the Jade Buddha Temple and a skyscraper.
30 minutes to 5 hoursPlan your trip
Hours, tickets, getting there and the paperwork for a layover: one tab each.
Where it is
North Gate: 168 Fuyou Road · South Gate: 279 Yuyuan Old Street, Huangpu District
The garden sits inside the oval of streets that traces Shanghai's old city wall, a short walk from the river. Most visitors arrive by metro and walk in through the bazaar, past the City God Temple and over the zigzag bridge to the South Gate. Private tours pick you up downtown; the food walk and the join-in bus meet right at the station.
Around your visit
Timing, what guests wish they had known, the evening and the lantern festival, and the fine print.
Old Shanghai
Pick the garden, the bazaar or both, then pick your date.
Check availabilityGuest reviews
★★★★★This is a very nice 3hr tour. Plenty of time to see the gardens and do a little shopping if you like. Our guide Sammy was very pleasant and knowledgeable. She knew so much about the history of Yu Garden and Chinese customs.
★★★★★If your time in Shanghai is limited, this is a wonderful way to see the highlights of the city. Wing had a suggested itinerary but made it clear that it could be adapted to our needs.
★★★★★We had a private tour of the Shanghai Tower, Yu Garden and Water Town. Snow was a fantastic knowledgeable guide. We were not rushed and enjoyed each location in a relaxed manner and finished with an excellent meal in Water Town with water views.
★★★★★We had a wonderful day with Feifei. She was knowledgeable and engaging. She always made sure we were doing what we were interested in and planned a great day for us. So easy for our full day layover in Shanghai.
★★★★★Yun our guide was amazing, she was so knowledgeable of the gardens and was friendly and polite. I would recommend anyone to do this tour the gardens were busy but Yun managed to find quite spots and took our photos.
★★★★★We were able to tailor the tour to suit our interests and she simply made it happen. The boat cruise was very well organised. The VIP section was worth it for the privacy and access to the best viewing platform.
★★★★★It’s so great to be able to customise the experience, make changes based on weather and what your family is looking for. We toured the traditional temple and garden but then wanted a traditional foot massage and do some shopping.
★★★★★First, Mary our tour guide was amazing. Very funny and knowledgeable [...] Nice little treat of trying Shanghai style dumplings. Amazing photos, especially thanks to Mary getting us a prime position on the boat.
★★★★★Great tour. Very well organised. Irwin was a friendly efficient guide. Value for money. Substantial lunch and beverages included. Optional tea shop and boat ride. No pressure tour, how it should be done.
Same street, different plan
Garden in the morning, dumplings at lunch. A small-group tasting walk starts right at the metro exit.
A two-hour, small-group tasting walk down Shanghai Old Street and Yuyuan Old Street: dumplings, tea and old-city snacks. It meets at Yuyuan Garden metro Exit 1 and stays in the bazaar lanes, not the garden.
Up to 15 peopleTastings includedMeets at the metro
The guide
Yu Garden is small, old and easy to reach, and almost every Shanghai day tour stops there. What changes from one tour to the next is how long you get inside, and whether you go inside at all.
Pan Yunduan, a Ming official, started the garden in 1559 as a place for his father, the retired minister Pan En, to spend his old age. Work stalled when Pan was posted to Sichuan as governor and picked up again in 1577. The name comes from "yu", to please or to comfort. The family fortune did not last, and by the Qing dynasty the grounds had been carved up among merchant guilds. In 1842 British troops used the teahouse as a base during the First Opium War; in the 1850s the Small Swords rebels ran their uprising from Dianchun Hall. The garden you walk through today was restored between 1956 and 1961, opened to the public in 1961 and listed as a national monument in 1982.
It is a small place, about two hectares, packed with more than 40 scenic spots. The idea of a Jiangnan garden is to fold mountains, rivers and forests into a city lot, so every corridor bends and every window frames a view.
Start with the Grand Rockery, a hill of yellow stone piled up in the Ming period. Then find the Exquisite Jade Rock, a 3.3-metre, five-tonne boulder so full of holes that, the story goes, incense lit below it smokes out of every gap. Look up along the tops of the walls for the dragons: grey-tiled bodies that undulate over the partitions, with a clay head at the end. The garden's own news page calls it the only dragon wall in a Jiangnan garden. In Dianchun Hall, ask your guide about the Small Swords, and look for the old iron lions at the gate, which the garden says are older than the garden itself.
All of that takes an hour if you keep moving and two if you do not. Tours give it 40 to 80 minutes, which is enough with a guide steering you to the right corners.
Outside the walls, the Yuyuan bazaar is a rebuilt old-Shanghai streetscape of red pillars, gilded eaves and tea, jade and snack shops. Its heart is the Huxinting teahouse, a pavilion merchants rebuilt in 1784 and a teahouse since 1855, which reopened in July 2025 after nearly two years of restoration. Next door, the City God Temple has stood since 1403 and honours the city's protector gods, among them Qin Yubo and Huo Guang. Entry is free or a few yuan; 15 to 30 minutes is plenty. Food queues form early at Nanxiang, the soup-dumpling house founded in 1900.
The garden itself costs 30 or 40 RMB and sits ten minutes from a metro station, so you do not need a tour to see it. What a guide buys you is the story behind the stones, someone to handle tickets and Chinese menus, a plan around the Monday closure and the crowds, and a car for the rest of the city. That last part matters most: the private full day fits the garden, the Bund, the Jade Buddha Temple and Nanjing Road into one day without a single metro change. On a layover the guide also handles the airport run. If all you want is the garden, go at 09:00 on a weekday and read our tour or DIY guide first.
Guides
In-depth guides to the questions people ask most before booking. See all guides.
Tickets & hoursWhat the garden costs in 2026, when it opens and the Monday rule.
Garden vs bazaarWhat sits behind the ticket gate, and what you can see for free.
Getting thereMetro exits, the two gates, the Bund walk and both airports.
Tour or go aloneWhat a guide adds, what it costs, and when to go on your own.
Yu Garden at nightBazaar lights, the night garden tour and river cruise combos.
Zhujiajiao day tripWater town plus Yu Garden: private car, shared bus or metro.From the blog
Festival dates, visa rules and seasonal changes. All posts.
FAQ
Straight answers to what people ask most about visiting Yu Garden.
Adults pay 40 RMB from 1 April to 30 June and 1 September to 30 November, and 30 RMB in July, August and from December to March, according to the official visitor page. Children 6 and under (or 1.3 m and shorter) go free; students and seniors 60+ pay half with ID. Details in the tickets and hours guide.
Yes. The garden closes every Monday except national public holidays, and opens 09:00 to 16:30 the other days, with last entry at 16:00. Tours that run on a Monday swap the garden for something else: the join-in bus tour goes to the Jade Buddha Temple instead. The free bazaar outside stays open.
No. Yu Garden is the walled Ming garden behind a ticket gate. Yuyuan Bazaar and Yuyuan Old Street are the free shopping streets around it, with the zigzag bridge and the Huxinting teahouse. The evening cruise tours and the food walk visit the bazaar only. See garden vs bazaar.
Usually not. Tickets are sold at windows at the North and South gates and in the official "上海豫园" WeChat mini-program. Carry a mobile wallet or some cash. On national holidays and during the lantern festival, buy online or arrive at 09:00, because queues get long.
One to two hours for the garden itself, plus an hour or two if you want to eat and shop in the bazaar. Tours spend 40 to 80 minutes inside: the private tour with tea gives it an hour, the layover tour 80 minutes.
Take Metro Line 10 or Line 14 to Yuyuan Garden station, then walk about 10 minutes to the gates. Line 10 runs direct from Hongqiao Airport. From the Bund it is a 15 to 20 minute walk. Exits and routes are in how to get to Yu Garden.
Going alone is easy and costs 30 to 40 RMB. A guide is worth paying for if you want the history and symbolism explained, have one day for the whole city, or are on a layover and want pickup and timing handled. Our tour or DIY guide weighs it up.
Private tours here are priced per person on a sliding scale: the "from" price is the lowest tier, which usually needs a bigger group. A solo traveller or a couple pays more per head for the same guide and car. Check the price for your exact group size before you book.
The garden closes at 16:30. On selected evenings it runs a separate guided night tour with a light show (about 150 to 190 RMB), not part of any tour here. The bazaar is free and at its best around 7 pm. See Yu Garden at night.
Chinese New Year falls on 6 February 2027 and the Lantern Festival on 20 February 2027. In 2025 and 2026 the lantern show opened three to four weeks before New Year and ended on the 15th day, with a paid ticket for the central lantern area. More in our 2027 lantern festival post.
Citizens of 57 countries can use the 240-hour visa-free transit with an onward ticket to a third country, and most of Europe, the UK and Canada can enter for 30 days visa-free until 31 December 2026. Rules are in the 2026 layover post. Remember the garden is shut on Mondays.
Ready to book
Private guides, hotel pickup and free cancellation up to 24 hours before on every tour.
More: a water-town day · a layover tour from Pudong · a night cruise and the bazaar
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