Pudong Airport (Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG))

Member Name: Wiggles1988

Product:	Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)
Date:	06/08/09 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean, spacious

Disadvantages: Lack of fooderies

This summer I made my first trip to the Far East. It took in Hong Kong, Beijing and finally Shanghai. During my trip I visited many(6) different airports in three different countries and the final one in China was Shanghai Pudong International. During my stay in Shanghai, I had visited an exhibition designed for the Shanghai Expo2010 which featured a section on the new Pudong International airport, so I had high expectations on arrival.

I took the Maglev train from Shanghai to Pudong airport, as it is a fair distance outside of the city. That was a fantastic experience, although over quick at 401km/hr, well worth a go if you happen to find yourself in Shanghai! Arriving at the airport it seemed new, clean and very spacious.

Once inside there were a couple confusing signs supposedly indicating which terminal to go to for what airlines. After a few confused minutes we found out terminal 1 was where we should be for our airline (KLM).

Terminal 1 was very spacious and clean. There was work taking place on the bottom level, but this was boxed off by boards with some pictures on them, so was well contained and clean.

Our flight was at 11pm but we arrived a while earlier expecting to have some food at the airport itself. However, I was disappointed to discover the airport to be somewhat lacking in fooderies. In terminal 1 itself there were 4 eateries but two of them were the same and one only served food before 7pm. I was rather disappointed as there was not a variety of food available at these and it was expensive. Eventually we went to explore the wider airport in order to find some other food. We finally settled on PizzaHut (very chinese!) back at the entrance from the Maglev.

The airport security was efficient and we were through in no time. When we were through the 2 hour wait for boarding began. Most shops were shut at 8pm so we hadn't much to do. There were (boiled) water fountains to get drinks from which was nice and the airport was clean, fairly quite and comfortable.

I was glad when the time came to board the plane, but Shanghai Pudong International was a comfortable place to wait on the flight. An ok airport for comfort and cleanliness but NOT for food.

Summary: Good airport for a short wait, but eat before you arrive.