Getting around Shanghai: public transport, passes and taxis

Shanghai is a metro city. The network reaches both airports, both railway stations, the Bund, the former French Concession and most sights you are likely to visit, and it runs until around 23:00. Above ground, taxis and DiDi are cheap enough that a group of three or four often travels door to door for the price of four metro fares.

The table below compares the realistic choices by cost and time. Times are for typical cross-city trips of 8–12 km, not for the airport.

The metro is the fastest way across the city and the easiest to use without Chinese: station names, line maps and announcements are in English, and every entrance has an X-ray scanner, so allow a minute to get through. Trains are packed at 07:30–09:30 and 17:30–19:00; outside those windows you will usually get a seat.

Pay with the transit QR inside Alipay or WeChat Pay, which most visitors set up before arrival. A physical Shanghai Public Transport Card is the alternative and also works on buses, the maglev and some taxis; buy and top it up at metro service counters. Single-journey tickets from machines are fine but need coins or small notes, and you queue twice.

Buses cost ¥2 flat and fill the gaps the metro leaves, but they crawl in traffic and stop announcements are often Chinese-only. Use them for short rides, not for crossing the city.

Taxis are metered and cheap by US or UK standards: flag fall is around ¥14–16 for the first 3 km, then roughly ¥2.5 per km, so a cross-city ride usually lands between ¥25 and ¥60 (about $4–8). Drivers rarely speak English, so have your destination written in Chinese or open in a map app.

DiDi, China's ride-hailing app, is the smoother option: it takes foreign cards, shows the fare up front and translates in-app messages. It also runs inside Alipay, which saves installing a second app. Pickup points in malls and stations are marked, and drivers will call or message if they cannot find you.

At airports and railway stations, use the official taxi rank or the app. Touts in the arrivals hall offer fixed prices that are usually higher, and unlicensed cars cannot be traced if something goes wrong. No tip is expected in either case.

Pudong Airport (PVG) is 30 km east of the centre. Metro Line 2 runs to People's Square in about 60–75 minutes for a few yuan, the maglev covers the first leg to Longyang Road in 7–8 minutes for ¥50 and connects to Line 2 or 7, and a taxi takes 45–60 minutes depending on traffic. Hongqiao Airport (SHA) and Hongqiao Railway Station sit on the same metro complex, 30–40 minutes from People's Square on Line 2 or 10.

Shanghai Railway Station and Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station are both on the metro; Hongqiao handles most high-speed trains, including the Beijing and Hangzhou services. Allow 45 minutes before departure for security and finding your gate.

There is no tourist travel pass worth buying for a short trip. Metro fares are already ¥3–10, so a day of sightseeing by train costs less than ¥20. The Shanghai Public Transport Card is a stored-value card, not a discount pass: it saves queueing and works across metro, bus, maglev and some taxis, and you get the card deposit back at a service counter.

If you are staying a week or more and using the metro heavily, the card plus the transit QR is all you need. Budget roughly ¥20–40 a day per person for public transport, or ¥80–150 a day if you take taxis everywhere.

Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before you fly. Both accept foreign cards for the transit QR and for DiDi, and neither can be fixed easily at the airport. Carry your passport: it is needed for train tickets, some museum bookings and hotel check-in, and police can ask for it.

Rush hour is the main thing to plan around. If a metro ride crosses the river into Pudong between 08:00 and 09:00, expect to stand and to wait for a second or third train at Lujiazui. Walking is pleasant along the Bund and in the French Concession, and bike share is cheap on the flat streets, though the traffic rules take a day to read.