The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel is apparently one of Shanghai's 'top five tourist attractions' and it's also one of its strangest. Bizarre, trippy audio-visual effects play as you travel in an automated car 'into the core of the Earth' under the Huangpu river.
According to Zhang Bin, who’s been the sales director at the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel since its opening in 2000 and claims to have been on the ride more than 10,000 times: ‘The story is about going from space into the core of the Earth and out again. We couldn’t show the dirty Huangpu, which has no fish, so we went for something bigger and better. It’s the only tunnel like it in the world.’
Originally, the tunnel was planned to be a moving walkway, but government planners discovered automated cars from France, which they decided to use instead. For the audio-visual effects, an American company who had worked with Disney were initially pencilled in, but ended up being too expensive. Instead, a now-defunct Shanghainese company created the concept, from the trippy visuals to the ‘nascent magma’.
Baffling as the ride may be, it’s now one of Shanghai’s top five tourist attractions, having entertained two million visitors since opening. It runs from The Bund to Lujiazui, close to the Pearl Tower and costs 45RMB for a one-way trip or 55RMB for a round-trip.Open from 8am-10pm daily.
