4

I am staying in downtown Shanghai and have a flight from Shanghai to Paris at 12:30am (half an hour after midnight). According to WikiVoyage, the subway line 2 and Maglev train stop running after 9pm and 9:30pm respectively. Airport shuttle bus (line 2 from Jing'an temple) seems to stop after 9:30pm too. And taxi is simply too expensive.

Are there any local tricks or methods to travel to the international airport which is supposed to open 24 hours?

Improve this question
5
  • 4
    You nave an international flight at 12:30, so you should arrive by 10:30. Why not just take the last metro at 9:00 or 9:30, and spend an extra hour at the airport. That will give you time to eat a late dinner or have some drinks before you board.
    – Flimzy
    Nov 2, 2014 at 11:50
  • 2
    Best? Do you mean cheapest, fastest, safest, coolest, funnest...?
    – Mark Mayo
    Nov 2, 2014 at 12:12
  • @Flimzy That is probably what I will do but I make this question a bit more general so it's more useful for other people. I wrote about my case to prove that the situation is real; there are flights leaving Pudong after midnight.
    – puri
    Nov 2, 2014 at 14:14
  • @MarkMayo At first, I was thinking about putting cheapest but then the answer would be walking, no? "Best" here means the cheaper the better but not too slow, say 3 hours, or too uncomfortable, say headstand for 30 mins. I think my text is clear enough that it's about speed and price. You can edit it as you see fit.
    – puri
    Nov 2, 2014 at 14:18
  • @puri all good. Yours makes sense implicitly, but too often we see others that aren't clear about what they mean by 'best' and then the answers don't always help them :/
    – Mark Mayo
    Nov 2, 2014 at 23:17

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
7

TL;DR: Take a taxi; or take a train, arrive early and use the money you saved on a nice meal/nasty bottle of baijiu at the airport.

First of all, a sanity check: a normal metered taxi from central Shanghai to PVG should be on the order of ¥150, or roughly €20. If that's "too expensive", you're really not going to like the prices in Paris! (The same ride there would cost you at least 3x as much.)

But the good news is Wikivoyage seems to be out of date (for another few minutes, anyway), since according to the official Shanghai Metro site (in Chinese) the last train on subway line 2 departs Guanglan Rd (广兰路) at 10:00 PM, arriving around 10:30. Note that Guanglan Rd is on the eastern side of the line, and you'll want to depart People's Square around 9:30 to catch it.

The last maglev leaves Longyang Rd at 9:40, but this won't let you hang around Shanghai any longer, since you'd need to leave People's Sq around 9:20 at the latest to catch this. It's a much comfier and zippier ride though!

Last and least, while all other shuttle buses stop at 9:30 PM, Line 1 from Hongqiao Airport & Hongqiao station keeps running until 11 PM. This is unlikely to make much sense unless you're arriving from western Shanghai though.

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    Thank you for your answer! but I think my comment that taxi is expensive is fair enough. It's definitely much more expensive than subway (15 times or so). Personally I try to use public transportation as much as possible.
    – puri
    Nov 2, 2014 at 14:09
  • +1 Usually the best way to get somewhere in Shanghai is public transit. However, the best way to get somewhere on time is probably taxi.
    – Greg Hewgill
    Nov 2, 2014 at 21:05
2

I was living in Shanghai until a few weeks ago. Taxi really is your best option at ¥170-¥220.

If you really wanted to save the cash, then there are dedicated airport shuttle buses that run until about 23:00. In would take the one from Jing'an Temple as a good location, but there are others as well. That would cost ¥22 and take 50 minutes.

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    Buses from Jing'an stop running at 21:30, the only bus that keeps running until 23 is from Hongqiao.
    – lambshaanxy
    Nov 3, 2014 at 10:54
  • The info on the main websites didn't make that clear, but it does seem to be the case. That said, if you leave Jing'an at 21:30 then you will arrive just before 22:30. Checking in and getting to your gate will take (maximum) 60 minutes and the last hour can be killed using the free wi-fi.
    – user5043
    Nov 5, 2014 at 21:58

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .