Now in anticipation of the next entry (3 actually), I must make an obligatory comment about the fastest, silliest and funnest way to get from the airport into Shanghai or vice versa.
Yes, the much discussed Maglev train making its 30 km run from between the airport and Shanghai is fast - clocking in at a cool 431 km/h - and quite a fun little experience (all 7 minutes of it!). Unfortunately, being dropped of 10 km outside of town in the middle of nowhere is rather silly (it proved to be a little too expensive to bring the trackes all the way into town as originally planned, you see, cost overruns and all). It is connected to the metro system, so you can get to it at least. In terms of efficiency, a taxi remains your best option to and from the airport - but in terms of fun, you can't beat 431 clicks.
An amusing side note. As you approach the Pudong Airport Shanghai on the Maglev travelling at 430 krm/h, if you're timing is good you'll have one of the rarest experiences. At 430 km/h, the train is actually travelling faster than the jumbo jets on their final approach to the Pudong Airport runway for landing - since a jumbo jet is travelling in the area of 300 km/h at this point. At Pudong, the runway is actually lined up in a way that planes landing come in right beside the Maglev as they approach, so (as happened to us), there was a jet coming in right beside us which we could watch out the window as we approached the airport - a jet that was initially ahead of us, but that we actually caught up to as it approached the runway. An odd feeling, indeed.
Anyway, this was where we found ourselves on our way to our most recent travel destination, the subject of the next 3 entries, soon to follow...
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