Events & Promotions

Check here for Quintet Bed and Breakfast’s special events and promotion offerings. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Recent posts


Starting in October, we’re kicking off a dinner program, featuring authentic Chinese dishes cooked by our energetic Auntie Xu.  Auntie Xu is an amazing cook, who is capable of whipping up delicious home-made dishes that you can only taste at your Chinese friends’ home.  She has also lived in France for 7 years so is also well-versed in French cuisine.

Our dinner program is available for our B&B guests, as well as other visitors to Shanghai and expats living in Shanghai.  To start off, we’re planning to host the dinners twice a week (tentatively on Wednesdays and Saturdays).  Sessions for group of four people or more can also be arranged on other nights with advanced notice.  The mainly Chinese menu will be set by Auntie Xu each night depending on what’s fresh and in season — she will put together a well-balanced ensemble of meat, seafood, and vegetable dishes, as well as soups and desserts that are guaranteed to please your palate!  All dishes will be shared at our long dining table with all diners, and Auntie Xu will make sure there’s plenty of food for everyone.  If you have any special dietary needs, please let us know and we’ll try our best to accommodate.

The cost per person is 100RMB (~$15USD), not including beverages (soft drinks, beer, and wine are available for purchase at dinner time).  When you book your room with us, please let us know if you’re interested in participating in our dinner program.  We will run the dinner program on a given night when there are at least 4 diners signed up.

For guests who are staying with us during the holidays this year, we have prepared a small gift in the form of a hand-made stuffed rabbit.  Next year (2011) is the Chinese zodiac year of the Rabbit, so we thought our guests might like to take home a little token to mark their visit.

We found these cute rabbits from a cute shop called Ru-Wa, which is located in the JingAn Villa neighborhood.  The owners Season and Halei are interested in preserving and reviving the traditional Chinese toy crafts, and opened this workshop/store where they also offer classes on making traditional Chinese kites, lanterns, and other toys.  They work with old masters who are still knowledgeable about the traditional construction methods.  The old masters cannot be rushed so the items they produced are limited in quantity ;-)

Recently I met with Alex from Yana Adventures to discuss the possibilities offering Quintet guests some interesting day-tours that would give them a better sense of the city’s sights, sounds and smells.  Since we are already located in the French Concession, where people can roam about relatively easily on their own, she recommended a walking tour around the north Suzhou Creek area, a lesser-explored but interesting neighborhood.

The tour guide is the long-time Shanghai resident Mr. Chong, a retired cabby who has lived in the city for most of his life.  Mr. Chong will show you around his own neighborhood, where you’ll stroll through bustling markets and laundry-strung Shanghai alleys, as well as discover historical landmarks and hidden gems.  Being a veteran dancer himself, Mr. Chong will also take you to an old-school neighborhood dance hall; you can watch couples waltzing and fox-trotting between one another or even show off a few moves of your own ;-) To get a feel for what local life is like in Shanghai, visit Mr Chong’s home and hear the family’s stories from the past and present.  He’s aided by a translator to round out the tour.

Starting in September, Mr. Chong’s tour will be offered every Thursday morning (9:30am - 12:30pm) and Saturday morning (9:30am - 12:30pm) and afternoon (1pm - 4pm).  The tour is 250RMB per person and requires a minimum of 4 people.

If you’re interested in joining the tour, please email us at info@quintet-shanghai.com and tell us all the dates/times you can consider.  If your group has less than 4 people, Quintet will try to match you up with other guests who are also interested in the same dates/times.

For our first anniversary, I though we’d make a Christmas keepsake for guests who come to stay with us around the holiday time.  If everyone likes it, we can potentially do a version every year!

While brainstorming on what the gift should be, I was inspired by the recent “Tiny Feet” exhibition at the Plum Gallery.  Why not make a Christmas stocking with a Chinese flavor?  For those who know a bit about Chinese history, women, especially in the royal and wealthy families, used to have their feet bound to about only 3 inches long starting in their childhood.  Women with tiny feet supposedly looked delicate and attractive to men when they walked and swayed from the imbalance.  While the feet finding custom is now seen as an evil, sexist tradition that kept Chinese women subdued for centuries, some of the design and crafts that went into making the tiny shoes that covered those feet were exquisite.

I brought up this stocking idea to my guest-friend Hiroko and she also thought this ideas was interesting.  So when she came to Shanghai a few weeks ago, she helped sketched out a design for the stocking and then we went to the fabric market to pick out the fabrics together.  We chose four different patterns and colors for the stocking to give it a luxurious look and feel; the fabrics we used are also the same fabrics that people make “qipao” dresses and “mian-ao” jackets out of.

Each of the stockings is sewn by my housekeeper’s neighbor so each one looks a bit different and unique!  For a limited time only, we will sneak these little stockings into the guest rooms as parting gifts.  If you want one, come stay with us soon!

Coming to Quintet to celebrate a honeymoon, anniversary, birthday, or a special occasion? Ask about our special add-on package below when you book your room. We can also customize to your request and event.

 

The Adagio Package: $300RMB

 

-Romantically decorated room with fresh flower petals and candles

-Candlelight milk bath prepared with a scent of your choice

-Bottle of red wine with chocolates

-Mood music played on Quintet house ipod (you can bring your own ipod also)

-Breakfast served in-bed

 

This event of the century was first brought to our attention by enthusiastic guests booking months in advance.  Total and partial eclipses are actually common occurrences but what makes this July 22 one significant is that 1) it will be the longest one (5-6 minutes depending on where you watch it) in the next one hundred years and 2) it’s best seen from within the narrow band along the densly populated Yangtze River/Delta region, including Shanghai.

Here’s a map showing the eclipse’s path:  http://www.heywhatsthat.com/200907-solar-eclipse.html Here’s a map highlight the eclipse path within China:  http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2009/TSE2009iau/TSE2009-fig03.GIF The eclipse is the longest when you view it nearest the center line of the band.  Shanghai is a tad north of the center line.

In Shanghai, the eclipse will begin around 8:30am with the total eclipse starting around 9:3x-9:4x am, depending on where you are.  The only uncertainty is the weather on the morning of the 22nd.  The serious sun chasers are planning to go wherever it takes to get a good view.

Quintet is looking into organizing some kind of viewing event, possibly on our very own rooftop if the weather in Shanghai is good enough or leaving early in the morning to go somewhere in a van.

Email us if you’re interested in joining us!