To help travelers to Asia’s biggest cities, we are running a series of articles on how to travel from major airports to downtown. Today, we’re focusing on Shanghai.

Shanghai has two main airports: Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (SHA). This article covers Pudong Airport, see also our guide to Hongqiao Airport. Pudong Aiport is situated about 30 km east of downtown.

There are two main ways to get to downtown Shanghai by rail. Shanghai Metro Line 2 runs all the way to the airport. Trains run every 8 minutes from the Airport Station between 6:00 and 22:00, and travelling to People’s Square takes about 68 minutes and costs 7 RMB. At Guanglan Road station, you’ll need to transfer trains, but this is a quick cross-platform interchange. There are numerous interchange stations to other lines, including to Lines 4, 6 and 9 at Century Avenue and Line 1 and Line 8 at People’s Square.

photo credit: vizcochino

A quicker, but more expensive option is to take the Shanghai Maglev Train, the fastest scheduled train journey in the world, with trains running to a maximum speed of 430km/h. Trains depart the Maglev station at the airport every 15 minutes, and take just 7-8 minutes to arrive at Longyang Road station, where you can interchange on to Metro Line 2 or Line 7. A one-way ticket costs 50 RMB, and trains run between 7:02 and 21:42. Note that Longyang Road is not in central Shanghai, it’s still approximately 20 minutes to People’s Square via Metro Line 2.

photo credit: skylarprimm

If you’re planning a trip to Shanghai, we’ve got the resources you need for using the metro: visit our interactive metro map, print out a PDF map or download our iPhone/iPad app or Android app.

ExploreMetro makes Asia’s best metro maps. Find out about our apps for iPhone and apps for Android!