If you’re going to spend eight hours anywhere in China, Shanghai isn’t a bad choice. It’s certainly more of an adventure than many other stopover cities, but with a bit of planning things are likely to run pretty smoothly. Here is your guide for how to spend the best possible 8 hours in Shanghai, from the airport and back again.
Get your visa
China isn’t the easiest country in the world to get a visa for, especially if you’re from a western country. They’re expensive and applications need to be in months in advance.
But…
China does allow for a 72-hour “transit without visa” that basically covers exactly this situation. It requires proof that you’re in transit (booked flights and arrangements that demonstrate you’ll be moving on).
Click here for a full list of countries eligible for a transit visa.
The transit pass is available in limited cities, of which Shanghai is one. When you arrive in Shanghai, request entry via the Transit Without Visa (TWOV) programme. You’ll (usually) find a special lane for this option. As long as you can demonstrate you’ll be moving on within 72 hours, you should have no problem getting out and about in the city for your 8-hour stopover.
Other arrival considerations
Assume passport control will take about an hour, start to finish. You can check large luggage at one of six different luggage check stations in the airport. Once your hands are free, hop on the Maglev train for another 50 minutes. This is one important thing to keep in mind for Shanghai stopovers: you’ll spend 2 hours each way getting to and through the airport.
Climb the Oriental Pearl
Take Subway Line 2 from the Maglev stop to the Oriental Pearl Tower stop and walk to this plainly visible landmark. The tower has three modules and a total height of 468 meters, and offers a sweeping view of the city from even the lowest marker. Bring a map and this guide to help orient yourself to Shanghai’s structure and get a general sense for the city. It’s a jaw-dropping view by day, and simply astonishing by night.
Tickets to the highest module run just over $32 AUS, with lower-end tickets saving you just $5 AUS or so. Go for the top. It’s worth it. Budget an hour for this except in high tourist season, during which lines might make the experience take significantly longer.
Take Subway Line Two to Nanjing Road
Go back to the subway and ride to the Nanjing Road stop. Emerge in the city’s best promenade for shopping and eating. You’ll find both established world brands (or at least counterfeits of those brands) and local favourites for both food and drink. The road is 1.2 kilometers long. Find souvenirs, eat things you wouldn’t normally eat, and engage in extreme people watching. You can stroll the length of the road in half an hour, but budget at least an hour for even the cursory experience. Better yet, give it two.
Highlights of the Nanjing Road experience include drinking in open-air bars, a visit to the Shanghai No. 1 Department Store, and riding the pedestrian train. If you can be there at night, expect a neon canyon that will make you feel like you just stepped onto the set of Blade Runner. At the end of the road is The Bund, a colonial-era street for similar walking, shopping, dining and people watching. You can spend your final hour in the city exploring that, before you…
Grab a spot of lunch
Shanghai is China’s street food epicenter, and no trip here is complete without sampling at least a few of the goods on offer. Whet your appetite with a few xiao long bao (soup dumplings to you and me). These hot, steamy buns are stuffed with a pork and seafood broth. Next, move on to some di shui dong ribs. Sweetly braised in soy sauce, the tender meat just falls off the bone. If you’re feeling brave, how about giving the smelliest food in the city – stinky tofu – a go? Trust us when we say it tastes a lot better than its aroma implies!
Wander the Yuyuan Gardens
Take Subway Line 10 to the Yuyuan station, just for thirty minutes, to an expansive classical Chinese garden. You won’t find anything particularly surprising in this Ming-era collection of carp pools, bamboo hedges, pagodas and manicured landscape. You’ll just find one of the best examples this side of the Forbidden City. Admission is around $8 AUS.
You can take half a day to fully explore the gardens here, but at the end of your hour you’ll be close to out of time. Spend a few minutes at the bazaar outside – a trap set to snare tourist money, but a great source of gifts for the folks back home – then hop the subway back to the Maglev, and the Maglev back to the airport.
Remember, you can’t have a stopover anywhere if you don’t book your tickets. Wherever you’re going to or coming back from in China, a few extra hours in Shanghai can seriously round out your travel experience.
Check out our other stopover guides:
