Shanghai Adventure: Day 1 – Arrival

Since my Shanghai trip allowed me to see a crazy amount of things in such a short space of time, I will be breaking it down into manageable chunks over the coming weeks. So if you have a desire to see this place, allow me to indulge you, I’ll be dining out on this one for a while!

I mentioned in my last blog, all the nitty gritty about travelling to Shanghai, and my do’s and don’t advice. Basically all the boring stuff that you need to know, so now I move onto the good stuff, the destinations and tours we did! Wuhoo!

So strap in, here we go!

Day 1 – Arrival

Upon arrival into Shanghai (PVG) airport, we were met by our guide Kirsty, who told us that rather than our anticipated pick up by car, we were going to board THE WORLDS FASTEST TRAIN, named THE MAGLEV!

We knew this was coming at some stage on the tour, but after an 11 hour flight, this was one hell of a way to shake off the cobwebs! What a start!

We boarded the super modern Magnetised Levitation (hence MagLev), inside the airport which takes you from there to the city in about 8 minutes. The same journey takes about 45-60 minutes by car depending on traffic – so it’s stupidly efficient! It only costs about £6 one way as well, so it’s worth it for the experience alone!

The Maglev travels at an eye watering 431 kph, making it the fastest train on the planet, and when this baby gets up to full speed, you almost find yourself hanging on for dear life! It’s really, really, really quick! Just to prove the speed I took the below photo:

Yes that does say 431 kph!

And the picture to prove I was there and survived the speed (excuse the slightly stupid pose, I’d been travelling a long time at this point!)

This was a brilliant start to the trip and I would recommend anyone flying in and wanting to wake themselves up after a long flight to do this! And I’m not really a public transport kind of bloke, but when in Rome…

After the Maglev we met the driver and he took us to our hotel, The Sunrise On The Bund.

The hotel was excellent to be fair, large rooms, nice bathroom, good restaurant, English speaking staff (to a point), and a really good health club, pool, gym, spa etc – in China you must wear a swimming cap due to health regulations I found out, purchased at the hotel for about £5 ish, but a bit tight fitting if you have a big head like me! Take your own if you have a large cranium.

Few pics of the hotel room:

Yes that is a TV in front of the bath! All in all I was more than happy with the hotel, if I am splitting hairs I would say it’s a little far away from the Bund area, about a 20-25 minute walk, but once we had a good look round we were more than comfortable. There is a Jewish museum up the road which sadly we didn’t manage to see but worth a look if you have the time or inclination.

At this point we were getting pretty tired having not really slept, so after a quick bite to eat at an overpriced restaurant, we had a couple hours nap, then went for a bit of a walk to see Shanghai lit up at night, which is absolutely stunning – i must have taken the same photo 10 times. I’m not really a big fan of cities but it’s spectacular to be honest.

After our little venture out, we stumbled across a German pub just around the corner from the hotel, so decided to drop in for the biggest beer you’ve even seen, and after the long day / two days we’d had, it was well received!

So that’s my first day done! Maglev, Hotel, Food, Walk, Beer, Bed!

Thanks for reading, and stay in touch, next stop…Day 2…