SHANGHAI PUDONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT to Downtown by taxi

Maglev Train! To ride one would be awesome. And the idea kept me excited throughout the planning stage of our Shanghai trip. Our AirAsiaZest flight out of Manila was convenient but I failed to realize that we would arrive midnight and the last trip for the maglev train servicing Pudong International Airport of Pudong District's new financial center is at 10:30pm. Utter disappointment.

Imagine this. Shanghai Pudong International Airport is 30 kilometers away from downtown area but the Maglev Train could navigate that distance for only 15 minutes. At maximum speed of 300km/hr, that's fast! And again, we missed it. I will never get over it.

And since buses and the metro are no longer available at this time, the only option left for us was to take the cab. Sooooo expensive! Will talk about that at the end of this short post.
First, here are other public transportation options for you (depending on time of arrival) from PUDONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT to Downtown Shanghai.

SHANGHAI PUDONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 

METRO
Pudong International Airport connects with Hongqiao International Airport through Metro Line 2. (Hongqiao Airport Terminal 2 - Pudong International Airport)
Identification color for Metro Line 2: Green

BUSES

Many buses are passing through Hongqiao Airport or Pudong Airport. There are also buses passing both.
Hongqiao and Pudong.

See Full List >>>here

MAGLEV

Origin: Pudong Airport
Destination: Longyang Rd.Metro Station

Operating Hours:
Pudong Airport--Longyang Road 7:02-21:42
Longyang Road--Pudong Airport 6:45-21:40
Interval/min: 15mins before 7:02pm, 20mins after 7:02pm
Fare/RMB
Single Trip:50 for Economy,100 for VIP / Round Trip:80 for Economy,160 for VIP

Maximum speed 300 km/h （7:02-8:47、11:02-14:47、17:02-21:42）
430 km/h（9:02-10:47、15:02-16:47）

TAXI

Day(5:00~23:00)
0~3 km --12 RMB
3~10 km--2.4 RMB/km
Over10km --3.6 RMB/km

Night(23:00~5:00)
0~3 km --16 RMB
3~10 km --3.1 RMB/km
Over10km --3.6 RMB/km


So this is how we ended up, in a taxi. There were plenty of them parked in front of the airport, no problem with that. They use meter so no problem with haggling either. I have no problems with the rate too. I think they are reasonable. Not very big difference compared to Manila rates. But the thing is, Pudong International Airport is very far from downtown. Our hotel is located in Fuzhou Rd, Huangpu, very near The Bund and East Nanjing Road but we paid 261 Yuan. That's 1,800++ pesos for a taxi. Expensive!!! To note, taking the maglev would have cost the two of us only 100 Yuan. Dream come-true pa sana. Well, we had no choice. ^^


TAKE NOTE: Bring a printout of your hotel address and make sure the address has a translation written in Chinese Characters. If you don't, you will find a hard time because 99% of taxi drivers couldn't read English texts. And they cannot speak English either so I kept showing our driver that night the printout I was carrying and he would usually talk to me in Mandarin but I don't understand any either so I would reply in English. It's like talking to your hand.

We flew in Shanghai via

AirAsia Zest which flies daily to Pudong International Airport.

Be sure not to miss on their promo fares

by logging in to http://www.airasia.com/ph/en/home.page .

You can also download AirAsia's Mobile App

http://www.airasia.com/mobile/app-download/main_en.htm

Play Store link >>>here

and Itunes link >>>here

More on Shanghai and our China trip in my next posts.

Happy travels!!!!!

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