Transportation in Shanghai

As the most metropolitan city in china, shanghai is very accessible. Shanghai can be reachable by air, by land and by water.

By air
Shanghai is served by Pudong International Airport and Hhong Qiao Shanghai Airport. There are direct international flights between shanghai and some European and us cities.

Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)
With an area of 40 square kilometers, Pudong International Airport is in the eastern part of Shanghai, 30km from the center of the city and 40km from the rainbow bridge airport. After the finish of the first-step reform project, the pudong airport will be of the capacity of 300,000 aircraft handling and treat 36,500,000 passengers which can satisfy the need before the second waiting room was put into use in 2008.

At present, the Pudong airport has the flight of 560 per day which accounts for about 60% of the whole shanghai airport. There are 48 airliners home and abroad establishing connection with Pudong airport and the flying lines cover 73 domestic cities and areas and 62 cities in china. There are flights directly to Paris; Los Angeles; Detriot; San Francisco; Tokyo; Fukuoka; Osaka; Nagoya; Seoul; Sydney and other big cities. Besides, there are also district ional flights from shanghai to Hong Kong and Macaw.

Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport
Located in the west of shanghai, 13kms form the city center. the rainbow bridge airport has been considered as the port of shanghai airport flights for years. since 1996, it has got several first prizes in the activities like “the civil aviation in the travelers’ eyes” organized by the civil aviation department. It treats 8 million passengers per year. With an area of 820,000 square meters, the waiting room of the airport consists of 15 waiting halls, 18 VIP waiting halls and 15 luggage transmission system. At present, the aircraft movement of the rainbow bridge airport is about 540 per day with greater safety. A waiting building and b waiting building are connected closely to each other. As an important service window, the large waiting hall has the function of being in charge of the arriving and departing the travelers as well as landing the flights, ensuring the safety of airport production and ground service, guaranteeing the right time of the flights.

How to get the airports
The two airports are connected by the ‘guest road’ (a1road) and the beltway (a20 road) of shanghai both of which take us 45 minutes by car. There are many ways to Pudong airport from the city as follows:

• Seven special ways to the airport
• Take No. 2 subway to the long yang station and then take No. 3 airport line to the airport within 40 minutes.
• Drive to the airport directly along inner-ring road, Luo Hill Road, the beltway road (a20road), and the “guest road” (a1 road).
• Get to the Long Yang Road first and then take a taxi to the airport which costs you about 80 Yuan.

If you want to go to the Hongqiao Airport, besides the seven special lines to the airports, you can drive along the Yan’an skyway and to the end of it. Or you can take a taxi from the People’s Square which will take you 40 Yuan.

Another important transportation to Pudong Airport is the magnetic suspension train. The details are as follows:

• Operating time: 7:00am-21:00pm with intervals of 15 minutes
• Address: Long Yang station. No 2100 Long Yang Road (near the Bai Yang road, No. 3 and No. 4 exit of the Long Yang Station along No. 2 subway, the fifth line of the Nan Pu Bridge, the sixth line of the Nan Pu Bridge, the Shenjiang line.)
• The maglev airport stop: the east side of the waiting room of the shanghai Pudong domestic airport (connected directly with 300-metered corridor)
• The ticket: ordinary ticket: 50RMB for one-way ticket, 80rmb for return ticket.
  VIP ticket: 100RMB for one-way ticket, 160RMB for return ticket.

By railway
The Hu Ning (between Shanghai and Ningbo) and the Hu Hang (between Shanghai and Hangzhou) railways lead shanghai to the other places of China. there are Shanghai Station (locally called the new station), Shanghai West Station in Shanghai (the former Zhen Ru Station) and Shanghai South Station(the former new Long Hua Station) among which Shanghai station to be the main station with 70 couples of trains coming from and going to the big and middle cities in china.

By highway
The main highways in shanghai are as follows:

• The three national roads line 312(from Shanghai to Yining, Sinkiang), line 318(from Shanghai to Zhangmu, Tibet) and line 320 (from shanghai to Ruili, Yunnan) lead to the western part of China.
• The national road 204(Tongjiang, Heilongjiang—Sanya, Hainan) which passing shanghai goes through most of the beautiful cities along the coastline of eastern china.
• The Huning (A11 road), Huhang (A8 road), Hu Jialiu (A12 road), Hu Qingping (A9 road) connected the main cities around shanghai.

Kind reminder: so many long distance bus stations in Shanghai help a lot for those who go to Jiangsu, Zhejiang areas and the bus tickets are available ahead of time within three days.

The address of the main long distance bus station:
No.1662 Zhongxing Road (The north square of shanghai station)
Tel: 021-66051111 021-66050000

By waterway
Located in the center of the north and south coast line of china, Shanghai is the biggest port city in china and the third largest port in the world. The steamers there are connected with more than 400 ports in the world. because of the speed, the steamer business is not quite brilliant with only some of them running like the steamer to Dalian, Shenyang at the interval of 4 days from the fair road dock while the other long distance shipping along the coastline have been stopped. There are scheduled steamers to near places like Nantong, Dinghai and Putuo at sixteenth Pu wharf. If you want to go to Zhou Shan Islands, you should first take a bus at sixteenth Pu and to Luchao port or gold mountain port to board a steamer. Travelers going to Chang Xing Island and Hengsha Island should board the steamer at Wusong Dock. Make the boarding place clear before going to Chong Ming Island. Besides, travelers who want to Inchon and Pusan in Korea or Osaka and Kobe in Japan would board the domestic steamer at the out rainbow wharf.

City transport
Shanghai boasts one of the finest city transportation in china. There are the following options for visitors to get around shanghai, public bus, taxi, subway and maglev train.

Public bus
There are more than 1,000 bus lines in shanghai city and about 50 bus lines are being opened, adjusted or lengthened every year.

Grouped by time, there are daytime buses, the rush hour buses in the morning and afternoon headed with 2 of the license number and the night buses headed with 3; Classified by area, there are western Pu River area, eastern Pu River area, around the Pu River (bridge and tunnel), and the suburban area; Grouped by ticket, there are no-conductor buses with one Yuan ticket (within 13 km) or 1.5 Yuan ticket (more than 13 km), air-conditioned buses with 2 Yuan ticket and special lined buses with multiple tickets.

Around Town Transportation – Taxis
The base fare for every taxi in Shanghai is 11RMB. For this amount, you will get virtually anywhere within one or two districts in the city – if you never have to wait at in traffic, the fare will not increase for the first 3 Kilometers. However, the stand-still time will affect the fare, so if you are stuck in traffic the fare will still increase faster than 3K. The base fare rises to 14RMB after 11pm.

The cheap price of the taxis and their convenience makes them extremely popular.  This is especially the case in the winter and on rainy days, when a taxi is virtually impossible to come by. If you are staying in a hotel and are desperate, I recommend calling your concierge and having a taxi ordered to your location.  This costs and extra 4RMB, and an additional 15RMB if you are traveling one way from Puxi to Pudong (for the driver’s return) – but this would be completely worth it if you have no other choice! Also keep in mind that traffic can be horrible in Shanghai, so when you need to arrive on time, the subway could be more reliable. 

Two very important things to remember: One, ALWAYS carry a card with your hotel address written in Chinese on it.  Even if you think you can say the name correctly, the driver most likely will not understand. Second, despite the fact that it looks like there are no road rules in Shanghai, you are really very safe. There is some unspoken rule among drivers on the road that makes just about everything work. So just sit back and try to relax…

Shanghai Subway
The subway is a great, reliable way to get around Shanghai. It’s cheap (from 3 – 7RMB), quick, clean, and pretty easy to navigate.  There are maps near the ticket booths that tell you your fare in English, making it easy to simply hand over the exact change to the ticket seller (therefore comfortably avoiding language barriers). The automated machines next to the booths are also user friendly and in English. Just select the line and then choose the station. The machines accept notes and coins. 

You can also purchase a public transportation card at the subway ticket windows, which you can use at all the subways, bus routes and in all of the taxis.  The card is free, but you must pay a 30RMB deposit that you will get back when you return the card. During rush hour this can make a huge difference, as lines can be really long at the ticket windows.

A word of warning: The Shanghai metro system is expanding, but is currently still only 5 lines that transport a HUGE number of people everyday. During rush hour these trains can be stiflingly crowded. The crowds can certainly reach a level of unbearable for those who are even somewhat claustrophobic. Actually, experiencing the metro at these hours could theoretically cause one to develop claustrophobia.

Shanghai maglev train
The demonstration line of the maglev train is the important project of the shanghai traffic development during the tenth five-year development period of the nation and is also the first maglev train used in business in the world with the function of transporting, displaying, tourism and sightseeing. The magnetic suspension train is from Long Yang stop of the No.2 subway in the west to Pudong International Airport in the east which eased the heavy traffic between the city and Pudong airport. The whole line was 30km long, including the upper departing line and the lower arriving line with the speed of 430km/h. it will cost us 8 minutes for a single line. Since March 29th, 2004, the magnetic suspension train has adjusted the running time. In former time, the train works half a day during work time and a whole day at weekend. Nowadays, it opens from 8:30am to 5:30 pm everyday at the interval of 20 minutes with 54 schedules in total.

In order to embody the advantage of the magnetic suspension train, the department has taken some measures like the passengers are entitled to an 80% discount of the single train ticket by showing the air ticket of that day that is 40 Yuan for an ordinary ticket and 80yuan for the VIP ticket. Meanwhile, accompanied by adults, children who are less than 1.2 meters are free. The ticket is valid that day and other times invalid. travelers should get the tickets examined 20 minutes ahead of the time printed on the ticket s the examination would stop 5 minutes before the maglev train starting.

Address: the magnetic suspension station, long yang road.
Ticket price:

one way: 50yuan for ordinary ticket 100yuan for VIP ticket round-trip 80yuan for ordinary ticket 160yuan for VIP ticket Tel 021-28907777

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