Since it was announced that Shanghai Disneyland will reopen on May 11, people have been asking about visiting Shanghai. In this post, we’re going to talk about visiting Shanghai (including the sad fact that at the moment, you can’t).
China Is Currently Closed to Tourists
As of March 28, China is closed to tourists. while their very stringent ban has some exceptions, none of them are going to apply if your real goal is to visit Shanghai Disneyland.
So far there’s no indication of when they’ll reopen to tourism. It’s possible, too, that rather than fully lifting the ban they’ll ease up, allowing tourists from certain countries to enter first.
When the country reopens to residents of the US is very much up in the air. It’s entirely possible you’ll be able to enter an American Disney park before you’re allowed to visit China.
Health QR Code Required
Access to Shanghai Disney Resort is being restricted to people with Green Health QR Codes. The Health QR Codes are a way of tracking residents’ health. Presumably, any challenges tourists might have getting one of these codes will have to be sorted out when the country reopens to tourism, but just keep this in mind.
Getting a Visa To China Requires Time
China has a relatively complicated process for getting a visa. We were able to have our paperwork processed at the local Consulate in Chicago, with a turnaround of a week or so, and now we have 10-Year multi-entry visas.
Again, you’ll need to wait for the country to reopen for tourism, but once it does you’ll need to start planning to get a visa if you’re hoping to visit.
Shanghai Disneyland Is Great To Visit
We’ve only visited Shanghai Disneyland once, and we loved it. Shanghai is a beautiful city, and the park is easily accessible from the city. We spent a few nights at Shanghai Disneyland Hotel as part of our time there.
Some of our Shanghai content is out of date, but I wanted to highlight a few relevant items. You’ll want to mind the old publish dates, but here ya go:
We’ve visited over 40 countries, and China was one of the most challenging and most thrilling. There isn’t nearly enough travel content on the web geared toward English speakers, and there isn’t a ton of English in the country, but if you have your adventure pants on, you’ll have a great time.
Disney parks are always particularly welcoming to tourists. Many (most?) Cast Members didn’t speak English, but they were always able to quickly find someone who did in a pinch. We left our backpack at a restaurant and the Cast Members were quickly able to reunite us with it after a bit of miming.
Shanghai Disneyland has some amazing attractions, like TRON, Pirates of the Caribbean Battle for the Sunken Treasure, and Camp Discovery. It’s well worth a visit, and we can’t wait to go back one day, hopefully sooner rather than later.