Originally Posted by
gardkarlsen
Hi
The reason why we will be in Shanghai for a number of days is that the wife is involved in a conference connected to the World Expo. So I think that we will be in Shanghai for that bit for 5-6 days but after that we are more open and that is why I posted this to start with. We have been to Beijing, Xi'an and Hong Kong (as you can see from my trip reports on the homepage) but it would be fun to see more of China when we are in Shanghai. Thanks for the feedback so far.
In that case, Suzhou is a great option. It's about a one hour drive from Shanghai. Suzhou is famous for its ancient Chinese gardens, and is home to an excellent museum designed by I.M. Pei. There's also an old district that preserves some of the "canal culture." If you want to strike out to further destinations, Guilin is suitable for a couple of days, as is Dali (though, if you want to include Lijiang, you'd need at least one extra day). Someone earlier mentioned Kunmin. I think of it as a rather "typical" mid-sized Chinese city, but I don't recall there being an awful lot to see or do. If you're flying to Dali, you'll probably go through Kunmin, however. I found Yunnan Province to be quite interesting.
Here's a video of one of the larger parks in Kunmin:
http://vimeo.com/453481