Tours of Jewish Shanghai

Tours of Jewish Shanghai

Tours of Jewish Shanghai
5
About
Shanghai's Jewish legacy and experience. A half day eye-opening tour of an extraordinary story guided since 2002 by Israeli Journalist Dvir Bar-Gal. From the media: "Bar-Gal, rich with knowledge and full of humor, takes his visitors along on a mesmerizing journey into an amazing, sweet and sour world. A world where opium dealers, old world colonialists, real estate moguls, hard working poor Chinese migrants and Jewish holocaust survivors mix. "
Shanghai, Shanghai Region, China

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Tours and Tickets by Tours of Jewish Shanghai

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.


5.0
5.0 of 5 bubbles305 reviews
Excellent
288
Very good
15
Average
2
Poor
0
Terrible
0

Hannah K
London, UK5 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2019
Dvir was a fantastic guide. Extremely knowledgable and professional. The tour was fascinating and very interesting. A piece of history that everyone should learn about. Definitely the highlight of our stay in Shanghai. We were taken to different sites by comfortable vans. My husband did this tour on a previous business trip to Shanghai and was so impressed that he did it for the second time with me.
Written January 4, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

MollieArchie
London, UK900 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2011 • Business
A wonderful tour and not to be missed. Very informative guide
Written July 14, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

barry25_13
Melbourne, Australia11 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2018 • Business
We booked the day prior, which was not a good idea (almost didn't get a chance to be a part of something really spacial). Arriving late meant we played catch up for the next few minutes, (we missed out)!
This tour is a must, an easy walk and small busses were on site when required.
With a few Australians, USA and a couple from South Africa whose father had lived in the area during the war made it even more poignant. This man's house was still there, we stood outside imbuing the fascinating story that Dvir wove. All on the tour felt such empathy being on the tour with a child of someone who lived there, surviving to make a new his life. What an honor to be a part of this.
Written November 11, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

hg2479
Dublin, CA2 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2015 • Couples
I lived in the Jewish Ghetto during the second world war. The Japanese forced all Jewish refugees who arrived in Shanghai to escape the nazis to move to a ghetto. Life was not easy, and the tour described vividly what life was like. We visited the old synagogue, museum and other sites with an excellent history of the Jews who lived in Shanghai not only during the war years but also those that arrived at other times. Dvir Bar-Gal is an amazingly talented historian who brought back many memories. No one could be a better guide.
Heinz Gewing
Written March 28, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Susan R
London59 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2012 • Couples
I undertook the tour with my husband in October 2012 at the end of an organised tour when we remained in Shanghai for an additional four days.

Dvir Bar-Gal is very knowledgeable and was able to provide an overall history of the Jews in Shanghai as well as a general history of China and Shanghai.

Even though there is very little evidence of Jewish life remaining, what does exist Dvir managed to make it come alive and meaningful.

Though not cheap, I felt the experience well worth the cost and effort. I do recommend this tour if you have any Jewish connection or interest.
Written February 15, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

BlissfulBoomer
Sydney, Australia46 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2018 • Couples
People from many countries and from various backgrounds have found their way to Shanghai where they have settled for a lifetime or until they were in a position to move on. Such is the history of the small populations of Jews who have made Shanghai their home. This tour. led by Dvir is an exploration of three waves of Jewish families who came to Shanghai, what brought about this migration and how these people lived their lives while in Shanghai. Moving around the areas where Jews settled, Dvir is an engaging host with a wealth of knowledge entertainingly delivered and sprinkled with regular humorous remarks. This is a tour for people no matter your own background if you have in interest to find out about less than obvious groups who came to live in Shanghai. On our tour, there were two families who had relatives who had lived in Shanghai as refugees, and it was possible for them to locate the houses in which their relatives had lived. Despite the rain on our tour and no connection to the history, we found the tour engrossing in no small measure due to the style and personality of Dvir. You couldn't spend a better four hours in Shanghai!
Written May 29, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

kpmirk
New York48 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2015 • Business
I took Dvir's tour of Jewish Shanghai at the beginning of a 10 day stay in the city, and it haunted me the entire time I was there. A dear colleague of mine (now deceased) had told me the story of how his family escaped the Holocaust by moving to Shanghai, and how he grew up in the city as a child, but I was never able to really wrap my head around it. I travel the world often for work and have visited many of the historic sites relating to the Jewish experience in Europe and South America, but somehow the Shanghai tour escaped me even though this was my third visit to the city. Besides the fascinating stories, perhaps the best part of this tour is Dvir himself. He is from Israel and has lived in Shanghai for about 15 years. He was originally a journalist, and he has a very special way of delving into his subject and looking at it from every possible angle. He's extremely smart, funny, a fabulous storyteller, and his tours are very interactive. Dvir constantly challenged the group by asking us questions, which forced us to rethink things that we may have taken for granted. We were not just passive observers listening to a lecture and being shown the sights. Dvir has a burning passion for his subject, and it is palpable. He's obviously done this tour many times, but he made us feel like this was a special experience for him too. Several members of our group were not Jewish, and it is definitely not a requirement to be Jewish for this tour! I found that it helped me see the city in a different way for the rest of my visit, viewing it through the lens of the Jews that thrived here from the 19th century until Mao's "Great Leap Forward" around 1958.
In addition to the Jewish Shanghai tour, Dvir also does a "From the very old to the very new" tour of Shanghai, and also a "Shanghai's weekend special" tour, including a visit to the open air "marriage market," which I saw on my own, but surely could have used an insider to explain it to me. I will be returning to Shanghai for work every July for the next few years, and will definitely take both of these tours next time I go. There is probably no city in the world that is changing as rapidly as Shanghai, but Dvir has his finger on the pulse of what makes this fascinating and bewildering city tick.
Written July 25, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

TravelguruDanville
San Francisco, CA250 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2015 • Couples
i just completed Dvir's riveting and entertaining almost 5 hour tour of the Jews of Shanghai. One of the best tour guides I have ever had, Dvir takes you back in time through stories, pictures and carefully articulated historical events so that you can see and appreciate the various sites we visited. He lives, breathes and has committed his life's work to keep the Jewish history alive in this beautiful city that has very few Jews today. A fabulous and educationally enlightening tour that is extremely well done
Written April 10, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

eline210
Amsterdam, The Netherlands4 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2014 • Solo
This was one of the most informative, entertaining and interesting tours I have been on. I loved it. The tour guide, Israeli Dvir Bar-Elan, has studied the history of the Shanghai jews thoroughly and tells its stories in a passionate way. He looks at the history from different perspectives (both Chinese and Jewish, socio-economic, historic) and interlaces it with moving individual stories. Dvir makes sure the tour is interesting for all participants (including Chinese history students) and promotes interaction, questions and laughter. I highly recommend the tour to anyone. It was by far the most interesting tour during my three week trip to China.
Written October 3, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jacq G
New York City, NY4 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2014 • Family
I travelled to China with my family for two weeks. Dvir's tour of Jewish Shanghai was by far one of the best days of the trip! It was so interesting to hear about the Jewish presence in Shanghai. Dvir is incredibly knowledgeable and such a pleasure to listen to. He makes sure to engage all of the tour-goers and really makes sure that everyone gets the most out of the tour! I definitely recommend taking his tour!!
Written July 7, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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