LUXURIOUS accommodation and top-class dining are expected by guests at Shanghai's five-star hotels. So to stand out from the competition, many hoteliers are offering city tours, covering everything from high-end art galleries to local wet markets. Ruby Gao reports.

Shanghai's five-star hotels are more than luxury accommodation and dining - increasingly they are becoming specialists in local culture, providing tourist advice and experienced guides for tailor-made tours.

They may include a walking tour of the Bund led by an expert, a tour of the World War II Jewish quarter by a historian, a visit to art galleries led by a contemporary artist or curator, and the latest out-of-the-way restaurant destination for those in the know.

Some local tours, exclusive and in-depth, have been launched either as a new hotel service or provided at no cost as part of the added-value of a room package.

The hotel experience has been expanded from inside to outside.

This kind of tour service is popular in resorts for leisure guests, and now it is being adopted by some business hotels.

"Knowing more about local history and culture enables business travelers to use the information in conversation and networking, a powerful tool for business engagement," says Ulf Bremer, general manager at Pudong Shangri-La, East Shanghai.

"Local touring is added into our MICE package, for example, a rickshaw ride to Yuyuan Garden to give meeting participants a more impressive memory," says Paul Gill, general manager of the Renaissance Shanghai Yu Garden Hotel.

Concierge teams that plan and carry out tours has become a new selling point, says Bradford Rice, managing director at InterContinental Shanghai Ruijin.

Unlike some standard travel agency tours that simply more from one destination to another, hotel tours aim to present the city more comprehensively, and with local knowledge and insight. In addition to history, architecture, art, music, cuisine and religion, daily life is featured. Visits to wet markets, food stalls and shops only local know are on the program.

Distinctive tours

The aim is to make tours distinctive and local staff draw on their own experience to make them special and respond to visitors' interests.

The aim is make tours distinctive. Sometimes influential historians, artists, designers, fashion consultant and architects are invited to lead tours, ensuring they are professional and authentic.

For example, the Waldorf Astoria Shanghai invites Peter Hibbard, a historian known for his book "The Bund Shanghai" to show guests around the Bund, discussing the history, fascinating stories and architectural details of major buildings.

The Peninsula Shanghai invites a museum curator to show guests around local galleries and discuss the contemporary art scene.

Some hotels also tap their in-built advantages, such as location and heritage architecture.

The Fairmont Peace Hotel, a heritage structure, is located in the Sassoon House, one of the city's most famous Art Deco masterpieces. In the hotel's renovation, details have been preserved and some have been discovered beneath layers of paint and plaster - and are now revealed in their glory. The hotel itself is a tour.

The Peninsula Shanghai is known for its tour of Hongkou District, the former Jewish quarter in World War II when the city offered shelter to European refugees without visas. As many as 20,000 people lived there at one time and although the area was poor, the Jewish community was vibrant.

Some of Shanghai's earliest international residents were Jewish traders from India and the Middle East, including the Kadoorie family, the founder of The Peninsula Hotel.

Private hotel tours are exclusive and flexible, which is important for business travelers with busy, changing schedules.

A special route and itinerary will be developed by the hotel's concierge if guests order the service 24 hours in advance and describe what they would like to see.

Furthermore, the hotel's limousine service ensures that visitors will not have to find their way around an unfamiliar city or use public transport. Local guides ensure there's no language barrier and seats in small, authentic restaurants are book in advance by the concierge. Here are some highlights of hotel tours.

Timeless Shanghai - The Peninsula Shanghai

The journey is designed to show Shanghai as a city where past, present and future overlap. A day before the tour, a tailor measures guests for their traditional costumes, qipao for women and Tang jackets for men.

The tour starts in the hotel's Chinese restaurant with an authentic Shanghai breakfast composed of youtiao (deep-fried bread sticks) and cifan (pork floss and pickles wrapped in steamed glutinous rice).

Then, historian Marc Malk-Herrero leads a Rolls-Royce tour that begins with an old tea house in Yuyuan Garden, the city's largest classical garden built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Then it's off to the former French concession for a stroll. Stops include the private poster art museum with a collection of 6,000 posters from the 1940s to the early 1990s; an art gallery housed in a 1920s villa and showcasing antique furniture and contemporary art with Chinese elements.

As they tour Shanghai in their Rolls-Royce, guests listen to old Shanghai-style jazz. They can nibble "Da Bai Tu" (White Rabbit) milk candy that originated in Shanghai in the 1940s.

Bund stories

- Pudong Shangri-La, East Shanghai

The hotel draws on its location advantage as the first hotel on the Huangpu River in the Pudong New Area. It has a full view of 26 historic buildings across the river on the Bund.

The tour is free for guests staying in its Grand Tower.

Guests first go to the 29th floor for a sweeping view of 26 blocks of the Bund. They are equipped with binoculars and a map of the Bund to fully appreciate architectural details.

Hotel staff lead the tour, describing the Bund, how it was transformed from a muddy wharf to a major banking and financial center.

They visit key buildings and learn the history and lore surrounding them. Perter Hibbard's book on the Bund is used as a main reference. Staff adds local anecdotes.

"For guests to grasp the importance of the Bund, it's important to put history into context," says general manager Ulf Bremer. "The hotel's story tellers are flexible, telling the kind of stories that appeal to listeners."

For example, English travelers might like to know that the clock tower of the Customs House, No. 13 on the Bund, is a copy of Big Ben in London and was built in England by the manufacturer of Big Ben. It chimes every hour.

Journalists and media people might be interested in knowing that No. 17 on the Bund was once the home of the North China Daily News, the city's first and most influential English-language newspaper.

Local market tour

- Park Hyatt Shanghai

On one up-scale market tour, hotel guests can see birds singing in cages, a colorful array of flowers and plants, ornamental fish swimming in bowls and artistic bonsai.

Guests can specify what they would like to see in their customized tour. They can see how ordinary Chinese shop and bargain for the freshest meats and produce.

In the summer and autumn, visitors can watch cricket fighting, one of the oldest traditional forms of entertainment. A whole cricket culture has developed, including painting, calligraphy and poetry.

The chief concierge will help guests design their tour.

Downtown walking - InterContinental Shanghai Ruijin

A tailor-made downtown walking tour of the former French concession is complementary for guests choosing a designated room package.

The hotel designs a basic route reflecting the history of the city, but it can be adjusted to take in the sights guests want to see.

The trip starts from an ancient well in the hotel garden built in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). It takes in a historic building on hotel grounds that now houses a gallery with a large collection of old film rolls and photographs from the 1920s and 1930s. Back then the hotel building was often used for film shoots.

Accompanied by the concierge, guests then stroll along tree-lined Fuxing Road M. and Ruijin No. 2 Road to appreciate Art Deco architecture. The history of each road and its major buildings are described.

Guests then visit Tian Zi Fang, a crowded major tourist destination of narrow old lanes filled with trendy boutiques, cafes, galleries. What makes this warren interesting is that some locals still live there and hang out their laundry to dry, while many have moved out, renting their cramped quarters at sky-high prices.

Shanghai art map - Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund

The hotel is known for its customized tours featuring Chinese art and history, led by Stephen Smith, a fine arts adviser. The tours explore how art and religion express the changes in China over time.

Guests can choose one of three tours, or combine them - Chinese contemporary art, Chinese Buddhist art, and Chinese art and culture.

On the contemporary art tour, guests visit art galleries and museums. For the Buddhist art tour, they visit Jing'an Temple and Jade Temple.