Arrived in Shanghai last night around 8:30pm local time.
Shanghai airport is as new and modern (and large) as any other International standard airport in Asia which is obviously a benchmark for airport services much like Seoul, Bangkok, Hong Kong etc.
My friends met me after I passed through customs and immigration (such a well orchestrated and efficient service it was probably the fastest I’ve ever witnessed).
We took the MagLift train into Shanghai proper – it runs on magnets pushing against each other and has a top speed of 450 km/s! For our journey it only “cruised” to 301 km/s but it was really flying.
Once we arrived in the city proper, we took the metro and then a cab to a local restaurant for some very excellent Shanghai cuisine (including a really tasty Eel) before retiring to the hotel.
Later, Matt and I went out to walk the streets but by now it was late and no one was really around. We had a coffee at about 2am and then retired for the evening. It is now 7:30am and I’m up fresh and early.
We leave for HangZhou this afternoon, though I may get to see some more of Shanghai before we leave.
Your man in the Orient… Rob