Shanghai between flights: a metro with bag checks, a tunnel under the river and the old town

In October 2017 we flew from America to Phuket with the Chinese airline China Eastern, with a layover in Shanghai. At first the layover was only three hours, but the flight was rescheduled, and on October 17 we ended up in Shanghai until the next day.

A night on the airline

For the rescheduling, the airline gave us a free hotel room with meals until the next flight. For dinner we were given a card for 50 yuan (2017 price), and we could choose from the regular menu. We got rice with chicken, and the chicken turned out to be cold on top of that. The room, on the other hand, was quite decent, and breakfast was a buffet with a great deal of food: Pavel went to fill his plate a third time.

While we were still at the airport waiting for the transfer to the hotel, we met a fellow traveler. She was also flying to Phuket, and her flight had been rescheduled too. We decided to explore the city together.

The metro

We went out for a walk the next morning, October 18. Very conveniently, there turned out to be a metro station near the hotel. Before you go in, bags are checked, just like at an airport. The tickets and turnstiles are like in Moscow, except that on the way out a single-use ticket goes into the turnstile and doesn't come back. There is no way to fall onto the tracks: everything is fenced off, and special gates open together with the train doors.

A green and white metro train pulling into an elevated platform fenced off by a glass wall — The Shanghai metro

And in the tunnel an unusual kind of advertising was waiting for us: the picture is projected right onto the tunnel wall as the train rushes past. From the window it seems as if the car is standing still and you are watching TV, even though you are moving at high speed.

Metro car doors, with bright advertising frames on the tunnel wall in the windows behind them — The ads in the tunnel are visible right from the train windows

The Lujiazui skyscrapers

We saw our first Shanghai skyscrapers under a gray sky: it was overcast, though the rain never came. By Lujiazui square there is a big round pedestrian bridge over the intersection.

A panorama of a round pedestrian bridge over an intersection with a flower bed, buses and skyscrapers all around — Lujiazui and the round pedestrian bridge

Next to it stands the Oriental Pearl TV tower. It is 468 meters tall, and until 2007 it was the tallest structure in China.

Pavel in sunglasses and Alexandra standing on the pedestrian bridge, with a flower bed and high-rises behind them — On the round bridge, and the Oriental Pearl TV tower

A TV tower with pink spheres on its supports against an overcast sky — On the round bridge, and the Oriental Pearl TV tower

By little car under the river

We crossed the Huangpu River underground, through a tunnel, in a small car. It is a tourist attraction: you can also get to the other bank by metro, and it comes out much cheaper, but it is less interesting. Here, on the way, there is a light show.

A silver car with rounded windows by a lit platform behind red barrier ribbons — The attraction's car under the river

Riding the car under the river: lights in the tunnel

The tunnel brought us out on the other bank, to the Bund embankment. From here there is a view of the skyscrapers, and interesting buildings stand along the embankment. For example, an art center with a moving facade: its rows of bronze-colored pipes slowly move around the building.

A building hung with rows of vertical bronze pipes spreading across the facade in waves — The art center with a moving facade

The old town and People's Square

Then came old Shanghai: typical Asian streets and a temple made up of several courtyards. Entry is paid, and at the entrance they give you incense sticks: people light them in a special furnace, set them up and pray for something of their own.

Pavel with a big backpack standing under a huge bronze bell in a temple — Pavel and the big bell

We also stopped by Yuyuan Garden.

A pond with a boat and a fountain, a covered gallery on stilts and a pavilion with upturned roofs, a skyscraper in the distance — Yuyuan Garden

In People's Square the flower beds are very colorful, and two red flags there are planted entirely of flowers.

Two red flags planted from flowers on a lawn, with skyscrapers beyond the trees — Flags made of flowers in People's Square

That is how we saw Shanghai in one morning: modern, old Chinese and communist, a city of strong contrasts. After the walk we rested at the hotel for an hour and went to the airport. The flight to Phuket took five or five and a half hours, and by nightfall we were already there.