Time Needed for Shanghai Port Clearance?

[NC Garden Traveler]

I'm on a Oceania Nautica cruise (750 passengers) in March that starts in Tianjin, goes to Seoul, and then to Shanghai (we will be docking at the Gaoyang Road cruise terminal just east of the Bund). Everyone on the cruise will have already gone through Chinese immiigration/customs when they fly into China and I'm sure our passports will be checked again when we board the ship in Tianjin. How much time is likely to be needed for visa checking/clearance in Shanghai? Specfically, how long does it typically take to get from the end of the ship's gangway to the door of the the tour guide's vehicle? We are planning to go to Suzhou immediately after arriving and am trying to figure out how much time we will probably have for sightseeing once we get there.

 

Thanks,

NC Garden Traveler

[BruceMuzz]

China is always an enigma when it comes to officials doing their jobs efficiently. You are lucky to be trying this in Shanghai. The officials there are usually more switched on than their counterparts in ports like Xingang.

My ship calls at Shanghai about a dozen times a year. 8 or 9 of those times, the ship is clear in 30 minutes or less; the other 3 or 4 times can take as long as 3 hours to get the ship clear. You just never know.