I haven't flown them transpac since late 2019 because even their economy fares have been mind numbing, but domestic and regional wifi has been solid recently. And, I always had good experiences with wifi on the JFK flight.

Whilst not exactly 5 star, it doesn't seem all that bad! Flew with China Eastern a number of times back in 2017 and once ended up arriving at my destination 24 hours late with them! Hoping to get back to China next year and I'm looking forward to sampling their C919

Is the Great Firewall enabled on MU flights?

Of course.

How was the rest of the trip? How about the MU return Shanghai > hkg?? OLCI or queue?? :-)

Also no OLCI for the return flight but there were so few international departures out of Pudong so the line for manual check-in was quite short. I'll post that report in a few days in a separate thread.

Next up in this thread are some photos from my Shanghai trip, which is a bit more upbeat than the flight in.

wait a different airport? Didn’t you fly to SHA (??) airport? And you flew out of PVG? I think that’s pudong. I kinda forget. I last flew Sfo>pvg in 2006!

SHA is both the metro code that includes all airports within the Shanghai municipality (similar to WAS, NYC, TYO, QSF, QLA, etc), and the airport code for Hongqiao Airport.

PVG refers to Pudong Airport.

Yes, I flew into Hongqiao and out of Pudong.

With sunny skies and hot weather, my first stop was to Shanghai Tower, the country's tallest building which was still under construction when I last visited. J Hotel sits at the top part of it. It opened in June 2021 with 165 rooms, including 34 suites.

I set my eyes on the hotel's Lobby Lounge at the 101st floor (470m) for a drink to calm my nerves after a heavy day flying in. At first, reception on the ground floor informed me due to the pandemic, the restaurants are only open to residents, but upon my insistence, they checked upstairs for a seat and got me a table.

http://www.globalphotos.org/shanghai...515_170323.jpg

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Satisfied with my expensive drink, I was keen to see how the old shikumen neighbourhoods have shaped up after a lot of controversy years ago when the demolition crews came calling.

Zhangyuan was named after Zhang Shuhe, a wealthy grains shipper from Wuxi who bought a piece of farmland here in 1882 from a British merchant, Francis Groom. He built a Western-style garden for his mother. After she passed away in 1885, the garden was opened to the public, and saw a number of firsts, including the first lit electric lamp in the country, the first bicycle race, and first outdoor photo booth. It turned into an arts and culture hub for the city.

http://www.globalphotos.org/shanghai...0/IMG_5671.jpg

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Simingcun is located south of Jing'an Temple and was built in the 1930s as a staff dormitory for the Ningpo Commercial and Savings Bank. Unlike other shikumen of the time, it had wider alleys of 5-6m for vehicles to pass.

http://www.globalphotos.org/shanghai...0/IMG_5799.jpg

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European powers forced a number of China's ports to open for foreign trade in the 19th century. Shanghai was one of them, and various concessions were built where foreign residents followed their homeland's laws and lived within their bubbles. The major players of commerce and finance of the time built their grand buildings along the Bund.

For a memorable dinner with the grand view, head up the Three on the Bund, which has a terrace restaurant serving Western dishes.

http://www.globalphotos.org/shanghai...9/IMG_5597.jpg

Despite the rain, I enjoyed walking along the riverfront promenade to admire the Bund's buildings lit up with smaller crowds.

http://www.globalphotos.org/shanghai...7/IMG_5425.jpg

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More photos on my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/shanghai.htm

Fascinating trip report. When I went to Shanghai you could barely see the sun because of the pollution!

That airport experience looks awful.

I still remember my 1998 Shanghai visit with cars driving at night without using headlights plus all the bikes. I still enjoyed my 2006 visit to the museum with the aboriginal art because it looked similar to what we Americans refer to as Native American art. Super trippy. Similar in Taiwan.

Really enjoyed this trip report, very interesting. I like the way you put a thin black frame around your photos. How do you do that?

Thanks. To add a frame or my website logo, I use Photoshop and scripts in there to add them automatically.

Can't agree, save for the nice flight attendants.

I flew about ten times in China this summer -- with China Eastern, Air China, and GX -- FAs were by far the only highlight. Besides landing....

And there's still that no headphone rule for takeoffs and landings ... ehh, just lower your cranium so they won't notice.