Airport
Shanghai Pudong Airport (PVG)
Pudong is where most intercontinental flights meet mainland China, and the arrival is calmer than the building's scale suggests once two things are clear: which of the two terminals your airline uses, and that your gate may sit a short train ride beyond it. The larger decision is made before you book — the city keeps a second airport on the opposite side, and much of the domestic network leaves from there. Settle that, and Pudong becomes a straightforward front door into Shanghai.
Updated 2026-09-22
- CodesPVG · ZSPD
- Passengers per year (2025)84,994,548
- Elevation4 m
- ServesShanghai
- Official websiteshairport.com
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T1, T2 and the satellite past security
Pudong is two mirrored terminals, T1 and T2, standing either side of a central transport hall that holds the maglev platform, the metro station and the coach bays. Your terminal is set by the airline you booked rather than by where you are flying, and both buildings send off long-haul and domestic departures, so the boarding pass is the only guide worth trusting. The walk between them through the hall in the middle is short enough that a mix-up costs composure rather than a flight.
Past security the building stops being the whole story. A satellite concourse sits out on the apron, holds a large share of the gates and is reached only by an automated people mover from either terminal. Read the gate before you settle anywhere with a coffee: a satellite departure adds a train leg to the walk, and whatever you passed on the way in stays behind you once you go.
Maglev, metro and the rank outside arrivals
The maglev is the airport's signature ride and a genuinely fast one, but it does not finish the journey: it runs to Longyang Road, where you change onto the metro for the last stretch. That change is the reason travellers with heavy bags often skip it. Line 2 leaves from the same transport hall and runs west across the city instead — slower, cheaper, and the option that asks least of you after a long flight.
Shanghai taxis work on the meter rather than an airport flat fare, and the rank outside arrivals is queued and staffed; anyone who approaches you inside the hall is not part of it. Ride-hailing collects from marked bays in the car park rather than the kerb. Both rail options stop for the night well before the last long-haul arrivals land, which makes the rank, or a car booked in advance, the plan for a late landing.
The border, the biometrics and the bags
Immigration comes before the baggage belts, which means the queue, not the walk, sets the length of the arrival. Fingerprints are taken at self-service kiosks standing ahead of the desks, and using one while you wait saves being sent back down the line. Which passports may enter without a visa, and when a stop counts as transit rather than entry, belong to the entry rules for China.
Departures run in waves — a domestic rush through the morning, a long-haul push toward Europe and North America in the evening — and security lengthens with them. Check-in for intercontinental flights closes earlier than most travellers expect. Screening is strict on liquids and on batteries in particular: a power bank without clear certification markings can be taken off you at the X-ray, and that applies to the one in your hand luggage.
Why Shanghai's other airport keeps catching people out
The city has two airports and they are not interchangeable. Hongqiao, on the western edge, carries most domestic flights and a handful of short international ones; Pudong carries the long-haul. A connection that changes airports is a cross-city journey with luggage rather than a transfer, and it belongs in the plan as its own leg, with its own margin.
That matters most for rail. The high-speed hub sits beside Hongqiao, not here, so an onward train to Beijing, Hangzhou or Suzhou begins with a metro ride across the city — though the booking and gate mechanics of the high-speed network are the same wherever you board. An onward domestic flight from Pudong itself normally means clearing immigration, collecting checked bags and checking them in again.
Layovers, night arrivals and an early departure
A long layover turns on one question: whether you have the right to enter. If you do, the metro puts the Bund and the towers across the river within a comfortable half-day, bags left in the landside lockers. If you do not, the international transfer corridor keeps you airside between two international flights, and the day belongs to the terminal.
Airside, seating is generous, the paid lounges sell entry by the block and there are rest zones rather than beds. Landside, hotels ring the airport road and run shuttles of their own, which is what makes an early-morning departure workable — the shuttle's first run matters more than the room does. Showers landside are the most underrated facility in the building.
Practical: paying, connecting and the refund desk
Very little here expects a foreign card at the counter. Arrivals has bank machines and a SIM desk that wants your passport, but the smoother version is a data plan that works the moment you land and a card already linked to the local payment apps — the ground rules live in the guide to money in China. Airport wireless is free and asks for a phone number to send a code.
Departing visitors have one counter to find before the bag drop rather than after it: tax refunds on eligible purchases are validated while the goods are still with you, so the desk comes ahead of check-in. Left luggage and the lockers are landside, so a bag left there while you went into the city has to be back in your hands before the security channel. Trolleys are free throughout.