Total layover time in shanghai was 43 hours! The first layover on my way to Thailand I landed at 1:45pm. Immigration wasn’t too bad at all.
It went easier than I thought and was pleasantly surprised. I dropped my luggage off at the luggage deposit and proceeded to head for the Maglev. Getting to the Maglev and getting tickets were also easy. Can this really be real? Was I afraid of China for nothing? I guess we’ll find out when I get to the city center. The fastest the Maglev went was 431 km. The train didn’t get us to the city center but dropped us off at the subway. This took about 8 minutes! This is where I got a bit lost because I didn’t know I was supposed to get on the subway to the city center. I should have known because the area wasn’t too city like.

Anyways I eventually found my way after stopping to get some coffee. By the time I got to the central area it was sunset and there were LOADS of people everywhere. Walked around the area and had to use the bathroom but couldn’t find one so I went into the GIANT shopping center. Walked around there a bit before heading back to the subway and heading to the shopping area.

This shopping area was huge! I wanted to see the harbor so I started walking the opposite way. I figured I had plenty of time to see the harbor before heading back to the airport. Might as well find some street food while I’m at it. While walking around I noticed the INSANE amount of cops/military men around. Most especially around the crossing areas. Is it really that crazy that cops/army are needed to help pedestrians cross the streets? I tried to take a video but it was like swimming against the stream. Not possible. Every time the lights changed, the leader would yell and blow his whistle, then in unison the cops/soldiers would march shoulder to shoulder until they formed a line for the pedestrians to walk safely on. This happened on all four sides of the roads. Then there were cops/soldiers stopping people when the timer was close to 0 and the leader would yell and blow his whistle again and the cops/soldiers would march shoulder to shoulder and form a line blocking the pedestrians from the streets so the cars could drive safely by. Insane! There were also random cops/soldiers every so often all along the walkways. So strange. Is it always like this?

Found some little alleyways and went in them to grab a few snacks. Was a little worried about eating something my stomach might reject so I stayed “safe” by getting mainly fried foods. As for drinks, there was a family mart where I grabbed water and the VERY essential pocket tissues. The best street foods had the most crowds of course so I passed those because I just don’t have the patience to push my way for food. Anyways I did get my fill of delicious food so once I got to the end of the street, I turned around and walked on the opposite side of the street.
Walking towards the harbor, there were even more cops/soldiers! Even on the harbor, there they were. The harbor area wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. Maybe because it was already dark? Found a little niche area and just people watched, cop watched, soldier watched, boat watched. It was pretty peaceful to be honest. I couldn’t believe how easy this layover had been.

On my way back to the subway I stopped to get some snacks for the loooong night in the airport. Grabbed some fried chicken cutlet and the people working there were funny and nice. There were 3, the cashier, the fryer, the seasoner and cutter of the chicken. They didn’t speak much English so I just pointed to the photo. Naturally I pointed to the biggest chicken selection and the cashier had to do a double take and ask me twice to make sure I knew I was ordering the BIG one. Hahaha they all kinda chuckled. The fryer would do these chicken flips and I’m sure he was showing off a bit but it was fun to see. The seasoner/cutter pointed to a bunch of seasonings and I said “spicy?” and he said “spicy?” and sorta just looked at each other and laughed. The cashier came over and straightened things out. And the entire time he was seasoning my chicken “normally” he was muttering “spicy” over and over to himself.

Got my chicken, got on the subway, got on the maglev and was back at the airport. Got my luggage out of the locker because I forgot something. I originally was going to leave it there overnight so I didn’t have to worry about it but… The moment I sat down with my 2 backpacks, this guy comes over and is trying to sell me a hotel room. I say no and he persists. Then this girl sitting across from my says “she doesn’t want a hotel room” and he leaves. I thank her and we end up chatting. She’s currently teaching in Thailand and is from America. We find out that we’re on the same flight to Bangkok, we both have to transfer from the main Bangkok Airport (Suv) to the smaller one (Don Mueng) so we end up staying with each other.

The second layover on my way to Korea I landed at 3:40pm and it was raining. I had planned on visiting one of the ancient towns around Shanghai but this weather… So I ended up staying in the airport because of the weather and because I was not having the best time. First off, immigration asked me way too many questions even with my return flight itinerary in hand. Then I got stopped after picking up my backpack and right before exiting to the main airport area. The declaring goods area. I DON’T know why I got stopped. I would like to think that it was a random stop but I don’t think it was. I think they stopped me because I was the ONLY dark Asian walking past. I’ve never had this happen to me. At first I thought maybe they’ll make me open my small backpack. Of course they made me open my big backpack where it was filled with clothes and just clothes! If they wanted to find anything, it would’ve been on my carry-on and not my check-in. uggggh the guy was surprised and started being more nice to me once I handed him my passport and saw that I was American. Before that though, he was kinda using his dick voice when asking me where I came from. Buuuut after seeing my passport, he got all nice and I think he told the other guy to be nice too? I dunno. It was all a bit weird. He even got a plastic bag to lay my clothes on so they wouldn’t get dirty. And he was pulling them out gently. I didn’t care about that, all I cared about was having to pack them back in. He probably got bored or realized he wasn’t going to find anything so he stopped taking my clothes out. He didn’t even get halfway when he stopped. Instead he stopped when he pulled out my book that I had bought at the Incheon airport. It was “What the Buddha taught”. He looked at it and then said “ok, it’s a book. You’re ok”. Seriously? Uggggh he went back to his station and I took my sweet sweet time packing my clothes back. This left a sour taste in my mouth and decided I was just going to stay in the airport. I basically ate a lot and the waiters were watching me eat the entire time. I think they were trying to see if I could finish everything. I did. haha