Getting around Shanghai: metro, taxis, ride-hailing and walking

The short answer. Take the metro. It is cheap (most rides cost 3 to 5 yuan), signed in English, and reaches everything in this guide. Walk the Bund and the former French Concession, which are the whole point of coming. Use a taxi or the DiDi app after the metro closes or when you are tired, and show the driver the Chinese address card that every place page on this site provides.

The metro

Shanghai’s metro is the city’s backbone. To work out a trip, use our metro map and journey planner: type a station or a place on this site, and it gives the line, the direction to look for on the platform signs, where to change, and a note in Chinese to show station staff. Fares are by distance: 3 yuan for a journey up to 6 km, 4 yuan up to 16 km, then 1 yuan more for every further 10 km. A fare revision was put to a public hearing in September 2026 and may raise these figures slightly; the station machines will show the current price.

Paying.

• QR code (easiest): open the Shanghai public-transport code in Alipay (or the WeChat mini-program), hold it to the reader on the gate, and the fare is charged after you exit. It works ride-first, pay-later, so there is nothing to top up. Setting this up needs a foreign card linked to Alipay or WeChat Pay, which the Shanghai Municipal Transport Commission says the ride code accepts; see the paying guide.
• Tap a bank card: since June 2025 the gates across the network accept contactless UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB cards, according to the Shanghai government’s metro page. Tap in and tap out; the card must allow small payments without a PIN. We have not tested a foreign card at the gates ourselves.
• Single-journey ticket: buy at the machines or the service centre with cash. Since April 2024 every station’s service centre has a card terminal that takes foreign bank cards. A single ticket is valid that day only and is swallowed by the exit gate.
• Transport card: a physical card sold at service centres, topped up in cash. Useful if you dislike phone payments; otherwise the QR code does the same job.

Using it. Signs, maps and announcements are in English. Every entrance has a number (Exit 1, Exit 2…), and place pages on this site tell you which exit to use. Security screening at the entrance is routine; put bags on the belt and walk through. Lines close for the night; the last train time is posted at each entrance.

From Pudong airport (PVG)

Pudong is 30-odd kilometres east of the centre, and you have four ways in:

• Metro Line 2: the cheapest, about 7 yuan, and roughly an hour to People’s Square. Some trains require a change at Guanglan Road; follow the crowd across the platform.
• Maglev: 50 yuan single, or 40 yuan with that day’s air ticket, to Longyang Road station, where you change to Line 2. The operator’s gates also accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB contactless cards and the metro QR code at the 50-yuan fare. It is fast, but Longyang Road is still several stops from the centre on Line 2.
• Taxi: around 180 yuan and about 50 minutes to People’s Square. Use the official rank: outside Arrival Gate 12 at Terminal 1 and outside Arrival Gate 25 at Terminal 2. Ignore anyone offering a car inside the hall.
• Airport Link Line: a regional rail line between Pudong and Hongqiao airports, 26 yuan end to end, about 40 minutes, trains leave each end every 15 minutes, daily from 06:00 to 22:39 (Shanghai government, December 2024). It accepts transport cards and the metro QR code. It is the way to connect between the two airports; for the city centre, Line 2 or a taxi is more direct.

From Hongqiao airport (SHA) and Hongqiao railway station

Hongqiao is on the west side and far closer to the hotels. Terminal 2 and the railway station share a hub on Metro Lines 2 and 10; Terminal 1 is on Line 10. A taxi to the centre takes about 30 minutes and costs 100 to 150 yuan, from the ranks outside Gate 1 at Terminal 1 and Gate 4 at Terminal 2.

Taxis

Shanghai taxis are metered and honest in the main. The flag fall is 14 yuan for the first 3 km in a standard cab, 16 yuan in the larger Touran-type cabs, then 2.7 yuan per kilometre, with a waiting charge in slow traffic. Between 23:00 and 05:00 the flag fall and the per-kilometre rate rise by 30%, and journeys over 15 km pay a 50% supplement on the extra distance. There are small surcharges per trip during the Spring Festival, National Day and May Day holidays.

Practical points:

• Drivers rarely speak English. Show the Chinese address card from the place page, or the hotel’s card.
• Pay in cash or by scanning the QR code the driver shows you. Only some taxis have a card terminal that takes foreign bank cards, so do not count on it.
• Hailing on the street works downtown; at major hotels and stations use the rank. At the airports, use the official ranks listed above.

Avoiding an overcharge.

• Join the queue at an official rank rather than accepting an offer from someone approaching you.
• Check that the meter is running when the trip starts, and ask for a receipt (发票, fāpiào) at the end. The receipt carries the taxi’s plate number and company, which is what you need if you want to complain or trace something left in the car.
• If you think you were overcharged, photograph the plate and the meter. Shanghai’s 12345 public-service hotline takes complaints 24 hours a day in Chinese and 18 other languages including English, and also has an online portal. The city aims to respond within 24 hours.

请打表，谢谢。 (Qǐng dǎ biǎo, xièxie.) “Please use the meter, thank you.”

Ride-hailing

DiDi (滴滴) is the ride-hailing app and has an English interface; it can also be opened as a mini-program inside Alipay without a separate account. It is useful late at night, in the rain, and for trips from places where taxis do not cruise. Fares are similar to taxis. Pay through the app with the card you linked. China Daily’s service guide says the DiDi app accepts foreign phone numbers and bank cards; we have not found an official notice about the Alipay mini-program version specifically, so if it declines your card, try the DiDi app itself.

Practical points.

• Choosing a car. The app lists several classes at different prices. If you only want the cheapest ride, pick the standard option; the larger or more comfortable classes cost more, and the price is shown before you confirm.
• Check the pin. Drivers navigate to the pick-up point on the map, so confirm it is on the right side of the road, by a landmark or gate that you can describe. Put the exact spot in the note field if the app offers one.
• If the driver phones and speaks Chinese. Do not try to answer in English. Let the call go, then send a message through the app’s own chat; if it offers translation, use it. A screenshot of the map showing your pin, or a photo of the entrance you are standing at, works without any shared language. Then stay put.
• Check the plate. Before you get in, match the licence plate and car model on screen to the car in front of you.
• Switch off anything that distorts your location. Ride-hailing apps place you from your phone’s own location. Anything that fakes your location or routes your traffic through another country can put the pin in the wrong place, so turn it off while you book.

Trains

Suzhou, Hangzhou and other cities nearby are an easy train ride from Shanghai. The separate guide to day trips by train from Shanghai covers tickets, stations and timing.

Walking

The two districts this site covers best, the Bund and the former French Concession, are walking districts. Blocks are short, pavements are wide on the main streets, and distances between the buildings on our walks are a few minutes each. Two habits keep you safe: look both ways for electric scooters, which are silent and use the bike lane in both directions, and cross at the lights, where the countdown timers tell you how long you have. Each place page has “Open in Amap” and “Open in Apple Maps” buttons for turn-by-turn directions; Google services are not reachable in mainland China without a VPN, so rely on Amap or Apple Maps.

Bikes and ferries

Shared bikes are everywhere but need a Chinese payment app to unlock; once your Alipay works, they are a pleasant way to cover the former French Concession. The public ferries across the Huangpu are a cheap alternative to the sightseeing boats and take the transport QR code; the crossing from the south end of the Bund to Pudong is a few minutes.