Shanghai Trip Part 16 (Final): Return Home from Shanghai Pudong International Airport with Maglev

[Introduction]

I traveled to Shanghai, China, in late May. If I had been fluent in Chinese, I could have enjoyed the trip more, but I was impressed with a fine mixture of retro and modern elements in Shanghai. In this article, I will write about return home from Shanghai Pudong International Airport as part of Day 5. I used a Maglev Train to move to the airport and was upgraded to a premium economy seat.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Day 1: Fly to Hongqiao International Airport
* Day 1: Waitan (The Bund)
* Day 1: Waitan (The Bund) (Light-up)
* Day 2: Oriental Pearl Tower
* Day 2: Jin Mao Tower
* Day 2: Shanghai Tower
* Day 2: Shanghai World Financial Center
* Day 2: Pudong (Light-up)
* Day 3: Yu Garden
* Day 3: Xintiandi, Middle Huaihai Road, Hengshan Road and Tianzifang
* Day 3: East Nanjing Road (Light-up)
* Day 4: Shanghai World Expo Museum
* Day 4: Natural History Museum, Ocean Aquarium and China Art Museum
* Day 4: Yu Garden (Light-up)
* Day 5: Great World (Dashijie), Jing’an Temple and Shanghai Exhibition Center
* Day 5: Return Home from Pudong International Airport [This article]

[Travel Date]
2018.05.23 – 27

[Main Part]

Move to Airport by Shanghai Maglev Train (上海磁浮示范)

This is the final article of my Shanghai trip series. I will move to Shanghai Pudong International Airport (上海浦东国际机场) from East Nanjing Road (南京东路) where I stayed. Maglev trains are available as one of the access options to the airport, so I decided to use the maglev train.

First, I moved to “Longyang Road (龙阳路)” station where maglev trains depart. I used a taxi, considering my baggage.

I arrived at “Longyang Road (龙阳路)” station.

Maglev Ticket Center.

Platform.

A maglev train came into the platform.

“Shanghai Maglev Train (上海磁浮示范)” has been operating since 2004 and connects “Longyang Road (龙阳路)” station and “Shanghai Pudong International Airport (上海浦东国际机场)”. The journey takes about 8 minutes to complete the distance of 30 km.

The appearance of the maglev train.

Another shot.

In the train.

I heard the maglev’s top speed was 431km/h, but unfortunately the train reached 301km/h at its best in my case.

I arrived at “Shanghai Pudong International Airport (上海浦东国际机场)”.

Shanghai Pudong International Airport (上海浦东国际机场)

While I flew from Haneda to “Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (上海虹桥国际机场)”, I will fly from “Shanghai Pudong International Airport (上海浦东国际机场)” to Narita.

“Shanghai Pudong International Airport (上海浦东国际机场)” is located about 30 kilometers east of the city center and was opened in 1999.

As I mentioned in the first article of the Shanghai trip series (see the related article), I managed to book a free round trip ticket (award ticket) with the ANA’s milage program, so I will use ANA (All Nippon Airways).

As for ANA international flights, if passengers register necessary information (passport, email address and seat reservation) in advance, online check-in is completed automatically 24 hours before their departure. So, I just checked my luggage at “BAGGAGE DROP” counter.

Compared with “Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (上海虹桥国际机场)” that mainly serves domestic and regional flights, “Shanghai Pudong International Airport (上海浦东国际机场)” was larger scale.

Go through the embarkation procedure.

After the embarkation procedure, I will go around the airport.

Panda.

I had a Star Alliance Gold membership (ANA Super Flyers Card membership), so I stopped by a lounge of Air China.

In the lounge.

Now I will move to the departure gate.

I reached the departure gate.

The aircraft of ANA came into sight.

I will get on board the plane.

Return Home with ANA Flight 960 (NH960)

There was a happy occasion in my return flight. I booked an economy class seat, but I was allocated to a premium economy class seat. Basically, the flight was supposed to have two classes (business class and economy class), and this aircraft had exceptionally premium economy class seats as well as business class seats and economy class seats for some reasons. I was enough fortunate to be allocated to a premium economy class seat, as I presume I had a Star Alliance Gold membership (ANA Super Flyers Card membership).

While the seat configuration of the economy seat was 3-3-3, that of the premium economy seat was 2-3-2.

As you can see, there was enough space.

In-flight safety video with a Kabuki theme.

In-flight meal. I ordered “Low Fat Meal (LFML)” as a special meal in advance.

The flight took about three hours and I arrived at Narita airport.

Then, I returned home and my Shanghai trip for five days and four nights was over.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about return home from Shanghai Pudong International Airport as part of Day 5.

As the final article of Shanghai trip series, I will recap the trip. As I mentioned in the [Introduction], I was fascinated with a fine mixture of retro and modern elements, so I realized Shanghai is worth a visit in terms of taking travel photos.

On the other hand, there were fewer people who can communicate in English more than I expected, except for hotel receptionists etc. When I traveled to Taipei before, I was able to communicate in English in most cases including train stations and casual cafe etc., so I presumed it was possible to communicate in English in Shanghai as well. In retrospect, I guess Taipei was exceptional, considering that there were not so many people who are fluent in English in Tokyo 🙂

Now my Shanghai trip series with 16 articles was completed. Thank you for reading my blog.

Regarding my next trip, I have already arranged it. I am going to Seoul, South Korea, from September 5 to 9. I have never been to South Korea before, so I decided to visit Seoul, the capital of the country. Just after I arranged the trip, the Japan-South Korean relationship has been getting worse, so I was a little bit worried about it, but I consider it a good opportunity to confirm whether I (Japanese) can enjoy visiting South Korea without any troubles as before in spite of strained relations between the two countries. My blog will not be updated for the time being, but once I return from Seoul, I will start the next series, so stay tuned 🙂

[Map]

1. Longyang Road Station
2. Shanghai Pudong International Airport

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