Shanghai Tunnels in Portland Old Town: Kidnapping, and Underground Legends

In the late 19th century, when Portland’s Chinatown was known for gang activity, a network of underground passages—later called the Shanghai Tunnels—was built to move goods from the waterfront docks into the city. Brothels, gambling halls, and opium dens were connected to this maze of passages through steel doors and trapdoors that opened to hidden stairways and tunnels leading toward the banks of the Willamette River.

The Shanghai Tunnels were reportedly used by hired thugs, or “boarding masters,” to capture and deliver healthy young men to ships, where they were forced to work around the clock without pay. Boarding masters kidnapped men from bars and brothels.

The victims were often drugged with alcohol or other substances, dropped through trapdoors, held in underground cells, and later transported to ships, where they awoke with no freedom or identity and very little chance of escape.

This human-trafficking practice was known as “shanghaiing,” and Portland became one of the places associated with this form of maritime coercion.

The tunnels were sealed in 1941, but they are gradually being reopened for visitors today. A tour of the Shanghai Tunnels begins with a steep staircase leading down to the cellar of the former Old North End hotel.

Armed with flashlights, visitors descend the stairs and step into the 1870s — where the darkness, the artifacts, and even the occasional ghost story evoke the city’s darker past. The tour is intriguing, sometimes shocking, and occasionally scary, but entertaining from beginning to end.

The entertainment does not overshadow the educational aspect of the experience. Enthusiastic and knowledgeable guides share historical facts, tell fascinating stories, and answer visitors’ questions.

At the same time, while the tour helps illuminate parts of Portland’s history, it often leaves visitors with new questions they may want to explore further. The tunnels are full of legends that spark the imagination and encourage deeper research into Portland’s underground past.

Trying (and often failing) not to hit their heads on the low ceilings or hanging pipes, visitors move from chamber to chamber, imagining the grim first moments of captivity for those unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time — or perhaps the triumph of a Shanghaier celebrating a profitable deal. Either way, the imagination has every chance to run wild, and that is exactly what it does.