Travelling from Pudong Airport to Hongqiao Airport by Shanghai Metro Line 2

UPDATE: Travelling from Pudong or Hongqiao to downtown Shanghai instead? Check out our new articles for Hongqiao Airport to downtown or Pudong Airport to downtown.

Shanghai’s Metro Line 2 now connects the city’s two main airports, Pudong and Hongqiao. But if you’re connecting between two flights, how long can you expect the journey to take?

We set off to find out! We started the clock at Pudong International Airport‘s arrivals gate.



The metro station is located between the two terminals. Take the “central path” and follow the signs for the metro. It’s only about 5-6 minutes walk to the entrance gate. You can either buy a ticket here (to Hongqiao Airport will set you back 8 RMB) or use a Shanghai Public Transportation Card).

Only one way to go: toward “midtown”.

Trains from Pudong run every 13 minutes between 9am and 4pm during the trial operation. Opening hours should be extended soon.

We were lucky and a train arrived in 2 minutes.

Out of Pudong the metro is above ground, proving excellent views of … the airport …

vast swathes of empty land being dug up by bulldozers…

houses …

empty highways…

There are 7 intermediate stations between Pudong Airport and Guanglan Road. They are: Haitiansan Road, Yuandong Avenue, Lingkong Road, Chuansha, East Huaxia Road, Middle Chuangxin Road and Tangzhen. After Lingkong Avenue station the line goes underground.

At Guanglan Road you’ll have to interchange onto a main line Line 2 train for the remaining stretch to Hongqiao. Only 4-car shuttles serve the Pudong International Airport stretch while 8-car trains serve the rest of the line. Interchanging is very simple, thanks to a cross-platform interchange: simply walk off one train, cross the platform and board the train opposite. Heading west there are trains every 3-6 minutes. If you’re heading in the oposite direction there may be up to a 13 minute wait.

With 42 minutes elapsed we boarded the train toward East Xujing (the current terminus of Line 2, one stop beyond Hongqiao Airport).

Two stops on is Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, the former eastern terminus of Line 2. Since the opening of the new extension there is a new underground station here which has gone sone way to help solve the chronic overcrowding problems at the old station.

3 stops further on is Longyang Road, the terminal station for the Shanghai Maglev Train. If you don’t mind spending an extra 50 rmb and want the experience of travelling at 431km/h you can take the Maglev from Pudong Airport and join Line 2 here, although given the extra waiting around and walk between the Maglev terminal and the metro station, you’ll probably only trim 20 minutes from the total journey times between the two terminals.

Runnng through the centre of Shanghai there are lots of opportunities to interchange to other lines: in fact you can transfer to 9 of the 11 other Shanghai Metro lines from Line 2! Line 1 at People’s Square, Line 3 at Zhongshan Park, Line 4 at Century Avenue or Zhongshan Park, Line 6 at Century Avenue, Line 7 at Jing’an Temple or Longyang Road, Line 8 at People’s Square, Line 9 at Century Avenue, Line 10 at East Nanjing Road and Line 11 at Jiangsu Road!

Finally, with 1 hour and 44 minutes on the clock, we arrived at Hongqiao Airport Terminal 2 station.

Until Line 10 is extended to Hongqiao Airport Terminal 1 later this year, to reach Terminal 1 you’ll need to catch a shuttle bus. Reaching Terminal 2 is pretty simple however, just follow the signs from the basement level.

There’s a short escalator up to arrivals, or an extra-long escalator all the way up to Level 3 departures. Be sure to take the escalator on the left!


And finally we made it to check-in at Hongqiao, 1 hour and 50 minutes after departing arrivals at Pudong.

If you’re in a big rush and don’t mind spending 300RMB+, a taxi is probably still your best option. There’s also a bus link linking the two airports (Airport Line 1), but like taxis it can be very slow if traffic is jammed. Taking the metro is not fast, but it’s reliable and a pretty hassle-free way to get between the two airports. Just don’t expect great views!


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12 thoughts on “Travelling from Pudong Airport to Hongqiao Airport by Shanghai Metro Line 2

  1. Pingback: Get to downtown Shanghai from Pudong Airport | Short-term Apartment Rentals for Extended Stay Travelers to Shanghai

  2. Ernesto Fahrner

    Damn, cool website. I actually came across this on Bing, and I am stoked I did. I will definately be coming back here more often. Wish I could add to the conversation and bring a bit more to the table, but am just taking in as much info as I can at the moment.

    Thank You

    Houses for Sale in Drogheda

  3. Pingback: Shanghai Metro Line 2 Pudong Airport extension now open until 9pm « | Blog | ExploreMetro | China's best metro and subway maps

  4. Stimpy

    I have to say, I disagree with your comment regarding taking the Maglev- I believe you would save far more time than 20 minutes.

    Seeing as you said it took 42 minutes to get to Guanglan Lu, and guessing that it takes around another 10-15 minutes to Longyang Lu, that would make it around an hour.

    The maglev’s journey is around 4-10 minutes. Trains run every 15 minutes, so in the worst secenario, including walking time, it would take 30 minutes.

    Thats a saving of 30 minutes, and I believe the average would be around 40 minutes.

  5. Matt

    True, but note the 42 minutes includes the time to walk to the metro station at PVG, which you also have to do for the Maglev station. So if Line 2 is roughly 55 minutes to Longyang Road, Maglev is approx:

    8 minute walk to station + 7 minute wait + 8 minute ride + 5 minute transfer to line 2 + 2 minute wait = 30 minutes

    So I’d say 25 minutes on average saving

  6. Sai

    Hey mate, everyone esle,
    Thanks for the detailed info.
    Any rough idea how long the journey to Hongqiao airport would take coming from Nanjing Xi Lu station?
    Cheers,
    S.

  7. Terence

    Riding line 2 this morning 6am – went like clockwork. Had less than 2mins wait at GuangLan Road for Pudong extension, total journey time 1hr 30mins (counted from time of station entry, not arrivals area).

    If you walk fast and are lucky with connections, you can do it in this time.

  8. Mindbender

    Great information. I was wondering how it would be to take the Metro all the way to Pudong Airport. Now I know. Thanks.

    Now if you travel by train in China just check out http://rail.assistanceinchina.com/ and you can use a browser plug-in or stand-alone Google Earth to see the routes with stations along the way and timetables for virtually all the trains in China. If you need to plan connections it will permit you to use Google Earth to see which trains have common stops along the way. There were 3537 timetables and 2790 stations on the site as of 19 December, 2010.

  9. Rory

    This is a great post, was looking for this exact info and details and you couldn’t have answered my question better.
    Flying out of PuDong in 2 weeks and have to make my way from Xiaoshan. Was a little confused as all the D trains now go to Hongqiao and not Shanghai South.
    Thanks.

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