This is Shanghai Huang Pu River Cruise, not Budapest Europe

Huangpu is the largest river in Shanghai and to do a Huangpu River cruise is a must when visiting Shanghai. It is one of the best ways to look at both traditional and modern Shanghai from the river. We booked via Klook a day trip to Zhujiajiao which also include Huangpu River Cruise at night. This is a perfect package and value for money. We had our dinner which is also included in the package near a mall next to the cruise terminal. After dinner, we walked for 5 mins to reach the terminal to queue to enter the cruise.

There are about 8 dishes shared by 9 adults; we have a pair of siblings from the Philippines and a family of 4 from Taiwan and including us of 3 pax. The restaurant is clean, modern and the food is quite good.  I was only able to shoot half of the dishes here, there are more dishes including meats and seafood.

The Huang Pu River Tours Ticket

Tickets can be purchased at the Shiliupu Wharf ticket office at Wai Ma Lu 80. But the queue for tickets is insane, super long and all are guides who queue for their group’s tickets. Thank goodness our Klook guide went to queue for our cruise tickets which save us plenty of time to chill and have our dinner slowly. Our cruise starts at 6.10 pm, perfect timing to see the neon lights as it was in the month of November in the autumn during our visit. The sky turned dark at around 5.30 pm. The price printed in the ticket costs 120 yuan (SGD 24.00) each.  The ticket for the river cruise isn’t cheap at all so booking with Klook for a day trip to Zhujiajiao, dinner and Huang Pu River cruise is a value for money package.  Time-saving and cost-saving.

After our dinner, we moved up to the pier, stroll a bit and shoot a few pictures.

The Queue to enter to the cruise

Look at the crowd to board on the cruise, super scary! Glad that we had Klook guide to direct us to the right line to queue to board to the right cruise.  You walk for about 10 mins as the crowds are too huge so the line get super long.  We had an 80 years old lady in our group but luckily she was able to skip the long queue and walk straight in.  Again, thanks to the Klook guide; he spoke to the working staff to let her in and without going through the long queuing system.

On Board

Since the crowd is so huge, I could not even find a spot to stand on the top of the deck.  Everywhere is filled with people, shooting pictures or broadcasting live on their handphones.  Unlike my recent cruise in Sydney, Harbor by James Cook Cruises, this one here is loaded with people and they don’t move at all.  They stay there even after they have taken the pictures.  So a tip for you is to go queue up for the cruise early and go up to the top deck to secure a spot.  Anyway on the top deck is fine as the cruise will move around so you get to see the other side too.

How long is the cruise?

The cruise takes about 50 mins along the Huang Pu River.  The iconic Pearl Tower stands out from the rest of the buildings.

Shanghai Custom House 江海关大楼 – The Bund

Do not be mistaken these buildings with Budapest Parliament House, it looks similar from far, right? The Custom House Shanghai is in the Bund, very beautiful colonial-era buildings and great to see it from the waterfront.  This is a collection of glorious buildings that dominate the Bund.

Pudong District 浦东

The other side is the Pudong district which has a number of important buildings to look at:

• The Shanghai Tower 上海大厦 – the tallest that looks like a hot Thermo flask, 632 m.
• The Shanghai World Financial Center 上海环球金融中心 – designed by the Japanese & US groups. It looks like a “katana sword” which is unlucky according to “Fengshui”. It used to be the tallest but later the Chinese Government built the Shanghai Tower – the Thermo flask, which is the tallest in Shanghai to suppress the “katana” building.  The katana building is in blue neon in the below picture and you can see the top is sharp like a “sword”.
• Jin Mao Tower 金茂大厦 is the third tallest, I been up there two years ago. The tower has 88 stories and 93 if you count the floors in the spire. It is another top landmark in Pudong financial center. The building resembles a pagoda, quite pretty too. The height is 340 m.  From the below picture, it sits next to the Shanghai Tower.

Oriental Pearl Tower

• Last but not least to look at is the Oriental Pearl Tower – Also an iconic landmark in Shanghai! It is actually a radio and TV Tower but is largely comprised of sphere structures, the roofs of the two largest spheres along with some smaller ones. The total number of spheres are 11 altogether.

Neon Lights – I love Shanghai!

The neon lights get changes to different themes and colors to showcase the beautiful Shanghai skyline. Different angles have different perspectives. The city of Shanghai is vibrant and the colorful lights are just amazing. One of the best I have seen so far, certainly better than the Hong Kong Victoria Harbor Cruise.

Huang Pu River Cruises

There are many cruises in Huang Pu River and some look super trendy with a modern style while some are decorated in a traditional Chinese style. Our cruise is the trendy modern style that holds up to 1,000 passengers.

Final thoughts:

You can also do the cruise ride with a ferry which only costs a few yuan (less than SGD 1.00) but then the experience is not the same. I have done it with a ferry two years ago and nothing compared to this one here.
There is no top deck for you to climb up to view the reflections of glittering high rises on Hung Pu river, so the feeling is totally not there.  I would highly recommend anyone visit Shanghai to do it with a cruise than the ferry.

More information on my Shanghai Travel Youtube: