How to Get Around Shanghai: Metro, Taxis and Ferries

Getting around Shanghai is straightforward once you know which mode to use for which trip. The metro does the heavy lifting: it is clean, fast and cheap, it runs on a single colour-coded network that connects both airports, the main rail stations and every sight worth seeing, and the signage is bilingual throughout. Taxis and ride-hailing apps cover the rest — luggage, late nights, short hops across the river.

Which transport should I use in Shanghai?

Trip	Best option	What it costs
Sightseeing across the centre	Metro, lines 1, 2 and 4	¥3-10 per ride
Pudong Airport to the city	Maglev to Longyang Road, then metro	Maglev ¥50, then ¥3-10
Late return or heavy luggage	Didi or street taxi	¥30-120 within the centre
Crossing the Huangpu river	Public ferry	About ¥2
The French Concession and the old town	Shared bicycle	A few yuan per half hour

The metro wins on nearly every count. It is never stuck in traffic, it costs a fraction of a taxi, and at rush hour it is the only option that arrives when you expected. What it needs is walking at both ends and the occasional change, which is where the app helps: it plots the route in English and tells you which exit to use.

Why is the metro the best way to get around Shanghai?

Shanghai’s metro is one of the most developed in Asia, and it is designed to move millions of people a day. The network runs on colour-coded lines and numbered stations, connects both airports and the main high-speed rail stations, and crosses the Huangpu river several times, so a trip from Pudong to the western districts does not force you back over the same bridge you came on.

For visitors, three lines do almost all the work:

• Line 2 — the east-west spine. It starts at Pudong Airport through the Maglev interchange at Longyang Road, crosses the river at Lujiazui, and runs through East Nanjing Road and People’s Square before heading to the Hongqiao rail station.
• Line 1 — north to south through the centre, serving the Shanghai Museum and the Jing’an Temple area.
• Line 4 — a loop around the inner city, the quickest way from one point on the ring to another.

The signalling is bilingual, Chinese and English on every station name, every line map and every platform. Combined with the app, you can travel the whole network without reading a word of Chinese.

What does a metro ride cost?

Tickets run from ¥3 to ¥10 depending on the distance, and you can pay in two ways. The simplest is the ticket machine at the station, which takes cash and gives you a paper or card ticket. The smoother option is the transport app, where you link a foreign card once and tap in and out at the gates.

Prices are the same whether you use the metro or the bus, and a bus ride is a flat ¥2. Buses are a good backup when a line is closed for maintenance, but they are slower and the signage is mostly Chinese.

How do you get from Shanghai Pudong Airport to the city with the Maglev?

If you land at Pudong Airport, the Maglev is the fastest way into the city. It covers the 50 km to Longyang Road in about eight minutes at speeds over 400 km/h, and Longyang Road connects straight into Line 2, so the metro takes over from there. It is a short, predictable, fixed-cost journey.

A taxi or Didi from the airport costs roughly ¥150-200 and takes 60 to 90 minutes depending on traffic. That is not the saving it looks like: you pay for the car and you sit in it. The exception is a group with several large suitcases, where the Maglev plus a short taxi at the other end is often simpler than the car.

Should I take a taxi or a Didi in Shanghai?

Taxis are plentiful and cheap by international standards, with fares in the ¥30-120 range for a trip across the central districts. The catch is the driver: many speak limited English. The usual workaround is to write the destination in Chinese characters on a piece of paper.

Didi, the local ride-hailing app, removes that problem entirely. You type the destination into the app in Chinese and the driver is routed to the exact point — no conversation, no paper note. For anyone who does not read Chinese at all, this is the difference between a smooth trip and a slow one at the kerb.

Both are worth it when you are moving luggage, travelling after the metro closes, or going to a place the metro does not reach directly.

How do I cross the Huangpu river on the ferry?

The Huangpu river separates Pudong, the modern side with the skyline, from Puxi, the old side with the Bund and the French Concession. The public ferry crosses it for about ¥2 and takes a few minutes, and the view from the deck is the reason to do it rather than take the tunnel.

It is a working transport, not a tourist ride, which is part of the appeal: you board next to commuters on their way home from work. Service runs all day and gets thinner after the evening rush.

The classic landing point is the Bund, directly opposite the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Shanghai Tower. If you are going the other way, the same river is the fastest route between the towers and the old town.

Is a bicycle a good way to get around the old neighbourhoods?

The French Concession and the old town around Yu Garden have tree-lined streets that are pleasant on a bicycle, and shared bikes operate across the city. It is the easiest way to cover short distances between the Bund, the French Concession and the shopping streets, and it avoids both the fare and the walking.

It is not the way to cover long distances, and it is not practical in the heaviest rain or at midday in summer.

What should I set up on my phone before I arrive in Shanghai?

The transport app is worth setting up before you land. It buys metro tickets, routes you in English and gives you the exit number at each station, which is the detail that makes the difference on a first visit.

Your phone needs to be online from the moment you land. The transport app, the taxi app and the map you navigate by all need data, and China is the one destination where a working connection is not a given. Install the eSIM before you fly and activate it on arrival, and the metro, the ferry and the rest of the city are all reachable from the moment you clear customs.

The Shanghai eSIM is sold for the city alone or for the country as well, and the difference matters if your trip also reaches Beijing or Hong Kong.