Long Layover in Shanghai, China

I had never imagined going to China on my Southeast Asia journey. I always imagined that I would land somewhere in Thailand or even Japan but Shanghai was never on my radar. How did I end up in Shanghai then? Well, when I started looking for tickets to Asia, the cheapest tickets I could find to Bangkok was with a layover in Shanghai. Now, I could have gone with the 3-hour that it was originally giving me, but then it would’ve landed me in Bangkok at 5 am, which would not have been good. So, instead, I decided that I was going to take a 17-hour layover in Shanghai. For the same price of the ticket, I get to check off one more country and another stamp on my passport.

• Dates I was in Shanghai: December 12th & 13th 2019

Some things to note about Shanghai in general:

• Shanghai skyline’s lights turn off around 100/10:30 pm as they do this to save energy. So, there is a high chance that if you go around 11 pm, all you’ll see is pitch dark buildings.
• Their metro lines close after 11 pm. So, if you’re planning on staying out till late, you would want to consider other transportation options
• Uber and Lyft obviously don’t work, and they don’t have any other ride-sharing apps. So, your only option would be to grab a taxi. They are very expensive at that time since the taxi drivers know the metros are closed for the night.
• PLEASE download VPN before you get to China if you know you’ll be using Snapchat, Instagram, and other western social media outlets. o   I had expressVPN which worked amazing.

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1. Visas

If you’re an American, when it comes to China, you need to get visas. You CANNOT just land there and expect to get stamped on your passport and be able to get into the city. Back in the day, you would have to apply for a visa here in the US, pay for it, and get approved before you go to China. But now, the good news is that China recently started this thing called “Transit Visa” for its most popular cities like Shanghai & Beijing. Passengers from the approved countries transiting in Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Xi’an, Chongqing, Liaoning, Chengdu, Wuhan, Qingdao, Kunming, and Xiamen can enjoy a visa-free stay up to 144 hours. You will have to show the immigration offer your onward travel and where you are staying. Have your ticket printed out and a confirmation of your hostel reservation. Once you get to the immigration line, there will be a separate one for transit visa and you will have to fill out a small form.

Some things to note:

• Pull out your full itinerary to show the customs personnel
• There is a different form for 24/144-hour transit visas and actual visas
• 24/144-hour transit visas (one we would fill out) are blue & white, that form will ask you about your arrival in China details and it will also ask you about your departure details from China. Save the departure part of the form and submit it to the customs when you’re exiting China.
• Metro DOES NOT take any American payment cards. So, unless you have Chinese cards, you need to have CASH.
• Here is a link to get more information: Link

2. Airport – Pudong International Airport – PVG

I flew China Eastern from Chicago O’hare International Airport to Shanghai Pudong International Airport. That is their main airport and it’s actually very easy to get to the city center. It’s also very big, you’re going to have to have some time to get through immigration and actually get to your gate. It’s also very clean and pretty much has a huge mall inside the airport.

3. Public Transportation

After a 15-hour non-stop flight, I landed in Shanghai around 6:30 pm, it took me an hour to go through immigration as Chinese officials are very strict. Now, this took a little while to figure out. I just want you to know that you will absolutely need CASH for this. There is no way around it. Even if you have a credit card with no foreign currency fees, it won’t work here. China only lets you buy metro tickets with their bank cards, anything international like Visa or Mastercard won’t work here. Obviously, I didn’t know this. It took me good 10-15 minutes to figure this out while I was fiddling around at the kiosk by myself. I even went to the help desk and the lady didn’t know how to speak English. After many failed attempts, I realized that I needed cash. Fortunately, I had landed with some extra dollars with me and there was a currency exchange right across the kiosk. I went and got some money exchanged. When I was buying my metro ticket, I saw two American girls having the same problem, I told them that they will need cash, later in the conversation, we found out that we were all on the same flight from Chicago. Isn’t it funny how, you could be on a 16-hour flight, not run into someone and the moment you are trying to get on the metro, you run into them?

• Here is a link to get more information: Link

Option 1:

• Once you buy your ticket, if you take Metro Line #2 and get off at The Guanglan Road stop, you will be in the heart of Shanghai
• This takes about 48 minutes and is the cheapest option. 7 Yuan one way ($1).

Option 2:

• There is another option too but this one is a bit more expensive and if you’re on a backpacker’s budget like me, I would definitely take the Metro. You get to see the real public transportation.
• You can take the Maglev train (one of those super-fast bullet trains)
  • it’s 50 Yuan ($7.17) for one way to the city center but it only takes 15 minutes.

Shanghai Public Transportation is actually super easy to understand. It’s very straight forward and all the stops are marked in English and Chinese so you won’t have a hard time figuring it out. It’s also very cheap, for about 3-7 Yuan, you can go pretty far on the metro. I personally didn’t take buses when I was there but I believe they are the same. I just prefer the metro as they’re very easy to get around in and I don’t have to worry about the street traffic slowing me down. Ultimately, if you’re staying for a longer period of time, you can also buy a contactless fare card that you can load money on the go and once you return the card, you get the money that’s left of the card back. So, that’s not a bad option either.

• You can read more about the public transportation here: Link

4. Hostel – The Phoenix Hostel Shanghai – 1 day

When I started my research for hostels in Shanghai, this one had the most amount of reviews and had the best ones too. One thing I’ve learned from this trip is that always go with the best and most reviews. You honestly won’t go wrong. They take payments in Cash or Credit Card and they had the most amazing staff.

• The rooms were clean & spacious
• The lockers were also big to fit a good size suitcase
• The bathrooms were clean but a little small but it was still okay
• They have daily classes such as tea tasting, how to write in Chinese, and others
• They also have an onsite restaurant and bar which is open till late.

If you would like to book The Phoenix Hostel for your stay, click here: Link

• I paid about 85 Yuan ($12.18) for a night.

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5. Things you HAVE to see

Like I told you guys earlier, when I was buying metro tickets, I met these two girls that were struggling with the same problem. They were inserting American credit cards to buy tickets and since I already went through it, I told them that they need to get cash and so they did. Coincidently, we had to take the same train to our destinations, they were getting off a bit earlier than I was but all three of us had some great conversations while we stood in that metro and waited for our stop. As we were talking, we found out that all I was on the same flight as them. Yes, they were on the same China Eastern flight that came from Chicago. What a small world huh? Either way, we exchanged numbers and decided to meet up so we could go see the skyline at night. Later that night, I met up with them at a street mall which was like time square New York except Shanghai goes to sleep at night, unlike New York. We then walked to the skyline, which was like a 10 min walk, and just as FYI, it was actually cold in Shanghai, you would need a light hoodie. I had thought that it would be really hot or at least a bit warm since it’s in Asia but I guess China is different. Once we got to the skyline, we walked on the riverbank and sat there. Took in all the amusement we could and just relaxed after our 15-hour non-stop flight. We were a little bit hungry after so decided to get some food but since it was already pretty late, all the shops were closed and so we just ended up eating ice cream. We then departed on our way, I wanted to make sure I get back to the hostel on time and get to bed since I had my 12 pm flight to Bangkok.

Next morning: Checked out of my hostel a bit earlier and went down to the skyline again. I saw it at night but I wanted to see it in the morning as well, so I stopped on my way to the airport, and thereafter, I took the metro directly to the airport.

1. The Skyline

FREE

If you come to Shanghai and don’t see this beautiful skyline, you’ve missed out.

It’s not the most lively place at night which is actually pretty amazing, you can simply just relax there.

Another thing to know about Shanghai’s Skyline is that they start to turn off the building lights after 10:30 PM as they do this to save energy. So, there is a high chance that if you go around 11 pm, all you’ll see is pitch dark buildings. I went there around 11 PM and you can see that most of the buildings were already starting to turn off their lights

2. Nanjing Road

FREE

This is the ultimate shopping street. It’s like New York times square except, after 10 PM, things start to close down and even the lights turn off.

3. Yu Garden

• 40 Yuan between March 1st and October 31st, 30 Yuan between November 1st and next February 28th.
• This is a botanical garden but on a whole level. I personally didn’t go here since I was only in Shanghai for about 17 hours but from what I heard among the other fellow hostel roommates, it’s really worth visiting
  • Got this picture off of google.

6. Currency Exchange

Currency Exchange – Local Currency is Yuan (RMB). 1 USD = 6.98 Yuan.

You have 3 options, I recommend option 3:

1) Open a prepaid card. This is the method I used and it had its ups and downs. I used Travelex Money Card that you can find here. It’s pretty much like a debit card. What you will have to do is, open the card for $10 and you will be able to link it to your bank account. Every time you feel like you want to convert some money onto your Travelex Money Card, you can use their app to say what currency you want to convert it in and within seconds, that money will be on your card and you can use it right away. It’s also contactless, so you can use it on public transportation and you can set a 4-digit pin so you’re safe as well. I did a lot of research when I went to open this card and I couldn’t find a better exchange rate than Travelex. So if you are planning on picking this option, you’ll get a good rate out of its competitors.

2) You can also carry around cash but I DO NOT recommend this option. When you’re exchanging cash, you won’t get a good exchange rate and there is change of it getting stolen or lost.

3) Open a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees. I recommend this option because when I left for my backpacking trip for the first time, I did not know such credit cards existed and so I never did my research. My personal favorite is United Explorer Visa Card that you can apply for here. I use this card pretty much anywhere I go abroad and since it’s a Visa card, it works almost everywhere. Another reason why I really like a credit card is that no one will give you a better exchange rate than a bank. It’s also very easy to use, simply use it as if you were to use it in the US, and when prompted to choose between USD or RMB, pick RMB. It’s also contactless, no foreign transaction fees, and you 2 lounge pass for United. So, if you’re in a place to open a credit card, I really recommend this option.

7. Food

If you’re a vegetarian like me, this is one country you will have a lot of problems finding food. I was only there for a day and I was still worried because I had to figure out dinner for the night and breakfast the next morning before I was headed to the airport. I was planning on staying at Mcdonald’s fries and Starbucks the whole time I was there and something similar happened.

• Since I met up with the two girls super late around 11 PM, a lot of the shops were already closed and if there was anything open then it was this small market in a shopping center that served ice cream. Not just regular ice cream though, it had a lot of different kinds of fruits in it. Pretty much like froyo but even healthier. Amanda and I got jackfruit ice cream.
• FULL DISCLAIMER: If you’re a vegetarian and are planning on staying in Shanghai for a bit longer, you will really have to do your research.
• Normally when I go to a different country, I do my food research on this website: HappyCow.net. It has vegan and vegetarian restaurants from all around the world.

8. Total Expenses

I had to exchange 50USD to 295 Chinese Yuan.

Spending in Shanghai:

–          7 Yuan: One-way metro to hostel

–          85 Yuan: hostel payment in cash for the night

–          3 Yuan: one-way metro

–          28 Yuan: Ice Cream

–          7 Yuan: Metro to airport

–          34 Yuan: Starbucks at the airport

Overall expense with the hostel included for 1 day was 25.66 USD or 179 Yuan

Below are some of the pictures I took while I was visiting Shanghai. Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @mrshutterup to follow my journey and for some more amazing pictures. Lastly, feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions!