Shanghai Tunnels

I wanted to give them five stars but couldnt, this tour has been on my bucketlist for a bit now and I was so excited!!! It’s spooky and you can see all the history around you and the info the guides give are good.
Cons: way to may people per tour, we got ther when ther was 45+ people and even braking up into two groups it was still to many. Also it’s not as long as you think and its a shame that old town pizza, isn’t more helpful to the tours.

We purchased tickets for out of town guests. Family went with of course.
One family member said It was disappointing as there were no «tunnels» more like basements connected together. with the band at the bar upstairs singing the whole time overhead you knew you weren’t going far.
History weak…
Save your money and check out the tram, rose garden, Etc

Pretty much as others have stated, this is just a winding tour through a basement. While I do agree that Shanghaiing may have occurred, the purpose for these tunnels was likely for storing and transferring goods out of the muddy streets. The tour guide made it out to be very mysterious with possible layers of undiscovered rooms and tunnels, but that just isn’t the case. When you think about all of the plumbers and construction workers that have been down in these rooms through the years, it seems a little less mysterious. If you’ve ever been in the basement of an old, large urban building, you’ve seen all you need to see already.

I was skeptical to spend 13 $ on this as I was told it was about ghosts and the supernatural but was pleasantly surprised! It seems that the tour can go wonderfully or terribly depending on your expectations and which tour guide you get. Our guide was not Michael (a building block for the entire historical preservation group), but she was incredibly informative. She did add in information about superstitions surrounding the tunnels, but mostly kept to the rich history of the Portland Underground. I would recommend going for anyone who is interested in the secret history of Portland. The only issue I had was that there was no time allotted for a Q&A session afterwards.

While Portland does have a rich and creepy history of sailors being doped into indentured servitude AKA «shanghaiing», this almost certainly has nothing to do with it.
The tour consists of being led down into a basement, asked if you’d like to hear «ghost stories, history, or both» (a good first clue) and being told a bunch of tall tales while you look at some old (but not that old) junk that was obviously placed there for solely recreation purposes. The stories you will hear are well known folklore stories and have nothing to do with the real deal.
After an hour and a half of the guide making things up as he goes along and avoiding answers to legitimate questions of obvious skeptics, you are led to a storefront «museum» full of, again, old (but not that old) junk presented as artifacts, accompanied by various Shanghai Tunnel souvenirs which include, I kid you not, pricey bags of Shanghai Tunnel coffee .?
If you’d like to know more of the real Portland shanghaiing scene, google Finn J.D. John’s ‘Wicked Portland’ site – he has a great podcast on the subject, rich in legit facts, in which he also happens to completely debunk this tour specifically.

This is a story tour. There are no tunnels. Only back filled concrete in places where tunnels used to be under the basement of Hobo’s and some other pizza joint. We were under Hobo’s basement (dusty and dirty, like literally dirt floors) for an HOUR and a HALF. There were no tunnels. The storyline was ok since it was based on a true story and the few artifacts were neat, but we were under the impression that we would be touring tunnels (I think that was implied in the name, «Shang Hai Tunnel Tour») The only thing Shang Hai’d was our $ 17 per person! Come on guys just be honest about what you’re offering here, you’re practically lying to everyone. This was my birthday too, boo and hiss.

I gave it one star for two reasons. Our tour guide was a crackpot who introduced herself right off the bat as a paranormal investigator. The tour is basically a tour through the basement of 3 or 4 buildings. About 100 feet by maybe 150 feet or so. At the beginning of the tour the group of 30 people got to vote if they wanted the ghost tour the historical tour or some sort of ethnic tour having to do with slavery or something and ethnicity. I understood going in that they mainly would Capture white people and put them on ships and when they got to the mouth of the Columbia they would make them sign a contract and work about 2 to 5 years and if they survived they get dropped off somewhere on the coast at one of the ports if they were lucky.
There are tunnels all over Portland that you cannot access but due to my line of work I have been in some of them. Thank lawyers for yet another thing that is not obtainable to the public because idiots tend to get hurt and sue people
Our tour guide talked about ghosts and pictures and shadows and bumps in the darkness to the point that my wife made me leave the tour early and totally lost patience for it.
The Seattle underground tour is approximately one square block on the outside edges of the building under the sidewalks but it still way better than the Portland underground tour, at least they keep moving and you don’t have to listen to some blithering idiot.
For two people to cost was $ 29.98 it was still a rip off.

Just finished our tour tonight. Our guide, Michael, is awesome and loaded with historical info about the tunnels. I noticed other reviews on here complaining about the place. They must have not listened to any of the historical background of the tunnels and were only there to do some ghost hunting. Some areas of the tunnels were creepier than others. One of the lamps shut off out of nowhere while Michael was talking to the group. In the area with the wood sculpture some of the LED lights acted erratically and one lamp was swinging. Maybe it was just the draft from our large group. (Small rant alert: only con tonight was the group size and the complete lack of consideration from the other people. A trio of ladies would take selfies while our guide was talking and people with flashlights/​cellphone lights continued to blind us. Some people didn’t heed the kind warnings from the guides.)
Even if you’re interested in being in a (possibly) haunted location, most of the stories about the history were chilling enough. This was quite an experience and I’m glad to have been able to see it in-​person. I’ll have to check them out again in the future. Too bad I don’t live in Oregon or else I’d be interested in volunteering!
–Jesse (& Jessica)

I think there are basically three types of people when it comes to attitudes toward ghosts, paranormal activity, «unexplained phenomena,» etc.
The first type of person truly believes this stuff and loves hearing about it.
The second type of person may be skeptical but thinks it’s fun and interesting to listen to supernatural claims.
The third type of person not only finds claims of supernatural activity to be ridiculous, but he hates having his time wasted by people who insist on telling ghost stories as if they deserve to be taken seriously.
If you are the third type of person, I strongly recommend that you don’t spend your money on this tour.

WASTE OF MONEY! That’s all I can say. They should be embarrassed to charge what they charge and even call it a tunnel tour. You walk through 3 rooms in the basement of Hobo’s restaurant. That’s it’s! It’s a story telling guide that plays so called audio that allegedly recorded ghostly voices heard in the background was hard to believe. You do see old brickwork but most of it is up to date HVAC duct work, pvc piping, sprinklers, and staged old stuff. I would NEVER recommend this tour even if it was free.

Historically interesting, we did take the ghost tour, sadly with no ghosts. Pretty tough job for these tour guides in such claustrophobic, quite unhealthy for the ol’lungs atmosphere. Being a historical tour guide myself, kudos to them. I just wish they could give more quiet time to ask more questions to the underground ghosts, especially the Halloween tours. However the creepiness of the tunnels, the history, the overall atmosphere made it an interesting world to see of Portland. I would suggest getting a bite to eat at hobos with drinks and head down under!

I have taken 2 of the Portland Walking Tours (Beyond Bizarre, and Portland Underground) and finally was able to get the Shanghai Tunnel tour as well! The other two just «touched base» with the Shanghai history, but mainly was about other things.
We were surprised and excited to see our tour guide was the gentleman that gave Zack and the crew of Ghost Adventures (Travel Channel) the tour. He is quite knowledgeable and fits the scene well for the guiding.
My co-​worker and her husband joined myself and my husband for a late afternoon tour. We brought jackets thinking it would be cool down there, but it was quite warm and muggy.
We learned quite a bit, but some I knew from the previously mentioned tours. He mentioned they are continuously excavating and finding more artifacts, however some of the original items are not there to see, just photos and some have to be removed because lame people have broke in and stole items so some modification have been done.
Aside from a bunch of old junk that lays around that is not from the shanghaiing days, it was over all a neat experience close to my home. Would have liked to have met the spirits Nina or someone else in the tunnels– but I do think I caught a scent of perfume in one area that vanished as fast as I smelled it, but maybe it was a fellow tourist.
If you want to have a fun old town/​china town experience and enjoy happy hour food and make an afternoon/​night of it with friends, its definitely worth it. Good times!

I didn’t know anything of this history until the tour and enjoyed it throughly. The guides made for a great experience. One of the stupider members of the tour group at one time complained about being bored. However I found it to be enthralling.

Was super excited for this tour and the guide told us they’ve been getting tons of bad reviews on Unilocal lately. I was stoked to leave a GOOD review, but alas, I cannot. This lady was telling fantasy stories the entire time! They said the boots downstairs had to be taken out daily, because people have been stealing them; that crate hasn’t moved in years. Someone asked if the tin cans were original, she said yes, but they did not have 1 piece of rust on them, and looked freshly spray painted. She said people have been stealing them, so how are they all still there, in pristine condition and rust free? Not to mention, they are on a rope, so how do people steal them without having some kind of cutter? There’s another company that does better tours, so I’ll be interested in hearing some facts about the actual tunnels and not how this girl was on some ghost show the entire night!

We came on a Saturday night and grabbed the last tickets in person around 5:40pm for the 6pm tour because we weren’t sure if we wanted to do the tour. You however, should plan ahead and probably buy them online.
I thought the tour was great and one of my favorite parts of visiting Portland. I kayaked, hiked, and did plently of other things, and still, this tour ranks highly. I heard about the tunnels on the History Channel and really wanted to see some of Portland’s history.
The tour starts at Hobo’s, a nice place to have a drink while you wait. Our group was large at first (maybe 20 – 30), but decreased after the drunk people left, which was a relief. I didn’t think it was too hard to listen or see if you paid attention. It is dusty and it is underground of course.
I know some people mentioned ghosts, but I don’t care for learning about ghosts nor is that what I expected or was advertised. I’m not sure what tour that is honestly, but maybe avoid that if you’re expecting «real» ghosts…
I really enjoyed our tour and appreciated the work of our tour guide and people who maintain the tunnels (all volunteers!). I would highly recommend it! It’s great work these folks are doing!

I hate to post a negative review, given that I think the people that operate these tours mean well and are genuinely interested in the history of Portland.
That said, people considering this «tour» need to understand that there are NO tunnels involved whatsoever. «Basement of a Bar for Two Hours» would be a much better name for this. It’s totally deceptive to call this a tour of the city’s underground network. It’s the basement of a single building, and said basement is full of junk they call «artifacts,» along with modern HVAC ductwork and gas mains.
My family owns an old lakehouse in Michigan with a damp, spooky basement. This is sort of like standing around in it for two hours. And paying for that privilege.
We were expecting to be walking through tunnels that connected buildings throughout the city, as you’re told exist during the «orientation.» Expectation not met.
The ghost stories totally cheapen the experience, and may be fun if you’re 8.
Our guide bemoaned the «damage» that seismic retrofits have done to this basement. Because it’s definitely more important to keep dirty basements full of junk intact than, like, save the lives of building occupants when the Cascadia subduction zone finally goes.
Again, really nice people, but I would definitely skip this one.

I’m sad to see all the negative reviews!
I really enjoyed the tour. Dennis (I think that was his name) was the tour guide. He was a great story teller and it was easy to follow along. We got a mixture of history and paranormal which was interesting.
I’d love to read or get to know more about the underground tunnels, and fascinating dark side of Portlands history. Especially since human trafficking is still happening in a different form.
Next time I’m in town I’m definitely going to try their other tours!
I was a little bummed that we didn’t go through more tunnels, but still very satisfied.
Thank you!

We booked the day tour and I thought it was neat to get a visual of what might have gone on years ago. The tour guide made sure he filtered any vulgarity of the prostitution history because of my younger sister. He even checked on us after the tour to make sure I was happy with my experience… and we were.

Hmmmmmm first It is my opinion, Niki. Second, I did have one headphone in listening to my spirit box and the other ear listening to my guide, yes I could hear her and no she didn’t have to yell. Third, ¾ of her tour was on the paranormal from the get go… This Is where I saw… Did you hear that… to the point she asked the whole group at the end what did you experience or see… Fourth I was bothering no one, except the tour guide, I guess. And I wasn’t recording just listening and again no one could hear but me. Not sure how that is difference from a snap shot? Oh I know a picture is tangible evidence, and just listening well its just that.
So again people save your money, they don’t even know what kind of tour they do.

We went on January 2^nd 2015. They had about 58 of us stuffed into a basement. It was lame. Basically listened to the horrible karaōke being sung at the bar above us while the tour guide lead you on with weak «ghost» stories. Couple young kids in the crowd that got into it. He tried to build on there fear but didn’t do well. The stories are just that. There is no historical fact just «passed down verbal knowledge». Don’t waste your time. You are literally just in an old basement. Curtains hide the back stock from the bar above.
I will admit. They got me good. Only time in my life will I be ripped off for $ 30 to hang out in a basement for an hour and a half.