Like we told you, the new Terminal at Pudong Airport opened smoothly* yesterday morning, bringing relief to crowded Terminal 1 and a whole stack of new shopping and eating options to those flying from the new building.
Not quite a twin, but definitely in the same family as the old airport, Terminal 2 does feel a little calmer and brighter with a warm light from the wooden roof. How much of the calmness is due to their being a trickle of flights right now isn't clear- but the shopping and eating is a definite improvement in the new building.
Perched above the sweep of check-in desks is a mezzanine level Shanghai Ren Jia and Ajisen Ramen have the best spots to eat. Below that on the third floor departures area is a good sized bookstore split over two levels which. There are plenty of magazines in French and German but still an odd lack of English languge titles other than the ones you already find in T1.
At the far right of the second floor, attached to the Maglev station is the American corner with (as promised!) Burger King and a sports bar called “Champions” Serving up Potato skins, Ribs, Buffalo Wings and other western crowd pleasers.
The first floor pretty much just deals with the task of shipping the domestic and international passengers from door to taxi with the minimum of fuss, although there is a smart looking Asian food court.
The number of daily flights from T2 will increase from the current 100 or so over the coming months, and will be split according to airlines (Shanghai Airlines is the new T2 daddy, and we'll have a full list of airlines in the new spot to follow).
If you do end up at the wrong building, transfer to the other one by heading towards the Maglev station, and carrying on in the same direction. Allow 20 minutes walk for a mildly annoyed walk / 10 minutes for a panicked sprint to get between the two.
More images from Wang Jianshuo here and here.
[*Thank ***, I worked on the project! JC]
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Posted
Mar 26 2008, 09:53 PM
by
Shanghaiist