Day Trip: An Astonishing Folk Arts Museum

we’re keeping cool with an evening river walk, a cool museum day trip, and a refreshing beer & buildings walk.

Suzhou Creek by Night

Saturday July 11, 7pm

RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

Hot summer nights, cool Suzhou Creek.

Rivers are where great cities are born, and Shanghai’s no exception. Summer is the perfect time for an evening walk along Suzhou Creek, exploring the origins of this great city.

With the neon of the city glowing, the story of Shanghai unfolds, from the factories and warehouses of the industrial engine that fueled her growth, to the site of a landmark World War II battle, sprawling apartment houses and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the stately post office, churches, and the historic bridges, each with its own story, prettily lit up against the evening sky.

Ancient Chinese Folk Arts

Ancient Chinese Folk Arts at Six Arts Museum

Saturday July 18, 9am

departing Shanghai 9am – departing Six Arts 7pm (approx.)

RMB 1000 members, 1100 nonmembers

includes museum entry & all tickets, curator-led museum tour, Lili town visit, lunch and dinner, private bus (round-trip)

Join us for a day trip to China’s largest, and prettiest, folk arts museum, nestled in a charming water town. We’ll explore a world class collection of ancient hand-crafted folk arts and ancient building components across sixty galleries, stroll through a picturesque Jiangnan watertown, savor delectable regional delicacies, and more.

It’s a deep dive into thousands of years of Chinese culture: over 40,000 works, spread over four floors in a former cosmetics factory building transformed into a bright, beautiful museum for the private collection of one obsessive man.

He was drawn to them because of their beauty, the skill it took to craft them, and because he loved hearing the stories behind them—stories that we’ll hear on our curator-led tour. What he didn’t know then was that as China transformed, these objects would become rarer and rarer, the last remaining repositories of now-vanished traditions and lifestyles. A whole way of life, preserved.

Six Arts Museum is in little Lili town, a classic Jiangnan watertown: residents still live here, fishing in the canal, doing their laundry, gossiping with neighbors. It’s the kind of place where Mitch used to find these artifacts.

Six Arts best-kept secret is its excellent Chinese restaurant, and we’ll sample its specialties and then, for those who wish, stay the night in Six Arts stunning onsite hotel, surrounded by museum pieces, and head up to the roof for a round of mini-golf surrounded by classic pailous, or gateways.

The Summer Beer & Buildings Walk

Saturday July 25, 4pm

RMB 350 members, 450 nonmembers

includes 2 beers

Come hear about Shanghai’s beer-drinking history while enjoying a stroll through historic architecture and some refreshing brews!

On this walk, we’ll explore a part of Jing’an that’s just not explored enough, one that is rich with history and also beer. A grand domed neoclassical mansion, home of the scion of a newspaper fortune and a tobacco fortune; a modernist lane and a hidden temple; a Fujian retreat and lane neighborhoods, and full of colorful stories and Shanghai’s usual extraordinary range of architecture, from Art Deco to neoclassical to shikumen.

Along the way, we’ll answer some burning questions: who first brought beer to China? What was the beer lovers drink of choice in Old Shanghai? Where did they drink it? What happened to the beer business after 1949? All this, and suds too!