Haunted Underground Shanghai Tunnels Tour — Attraction in Portland

Our recent visit to the Haunted Underground Shanghai Tunnels Tour beneath the Old Town Pizza and Brewing Co. in Portland left us utterly unimpressed. From start to finish, the experience was a letdown, and we can't help but feel like we wasted both time and money on what turned out to be a lackluster excursion. Firstly, the "haunted" aspect of the tour was practically nonexistent. Instead of encountering spine-chilling stories or paranormal activities, we found ourselves surrounded by nothing but business stored items cluttering the basement. The so-called "Shanghai Tunnels" seemed to be little more than a storage space for the restaurant above. Disappointingly, the only things haunting this tour were the creaks of the footsteps of the customers above. The guide's efforts to make something out of nothing were painfully evident. The overenthusiastic attempts to create an atmosphere of mystery and intrigue fell flat as we were led through a maze of pipes and wires overhead. It was as if the guide was desperately trying to compensate for the lack of genuine historical or supernatural content. Instead of authentic tales, we were subjected to a forced narrative that did little to capture the imagination. The beer tasting, which was supposed to add a unique twist to the tour, felt like an afterthought. The selection was mediocre at best, and the entire experience seemed like an excuse to charge an exorbitant fee for what amounted to a subpar brewery visit. Save your money and seek out more authentic and engaging experiences elsewhere, as this tour does little more than exploit the intriguing history of the area for...

This tour has such a big build up for it with all the history and or myths you have heard here and there through out the years and the description on the web site definitely builds it up as well as you tour guide does at the beginning of the tour which starts out in the back of hobo's bar and he talked about catacomb's and tunnels and stuff like that as well as areas that you might smell smoke and if perfume NONE of these things were on the tour the entire hour and a half was spent in 5 small rooms none if which looked like anything more then a stone walled basement you can see in any older home in Portland or the country there wehad Display cases with bits of broken glass a few stray old nails and a button or two that you walk be as you begin the tour along the walls through most of the 5 mainly empty rooms are lined with broken old box spring innerds and parts from the inside of any building of those era nothing special there is what is supposed to be a original opium den with a bunk bed and a hair that u could look in but not pass the door that was the best part of it all and even it was bad the rest of the tour was walking around the other 3 rooms that were empty and had no even entrances to any tunnels catacombs or anything for that matter it was a total waste of time and money it disappointed me in every way it could and left me with no more info about the shanghai tunnels then I started and could have been better spent in the library reading up on them on your own do not take this tour...

I’ve been wanting to do this for a few years now. I love history, and the building is cool. Our tour guide was awesome - engaging, knowledgeable and entertaining. The tunnels were also cool, but the majority of the haunted “stories” are literally just hearsay. It was a lot of “my coworker said they saw”, or “I heard that during a different tour” or “a former employee said they had something happen”, kind of thing. The trap doors are all fake and everything else in the tunnels are recreations of what they believed it to be like during the time the tunnels were originally used. (There is a real sealed trap door in the restaurant under a couch, though). They also aren’t “tunnels” anymore, so much as the basements of Old Town Pizza and one or two of the surrounding buildings.

I wish there was an option for a non-drinking guest to have a tasting of anything during the tour. Thankfully I was able to take the included pint of beer to-go at the end of the night to bring to my partner, but otherwise it would be nice to either have a slightly discounted ticket for people who either don’t drink or are gluten-free, or maybe even a soda.

Overall, I probably would not go again and it wouldn't be on one of my “must-do in Portland” lists, but if you like history-adjacent storytelling, this is a fun activity to do on a date or with a...