Shanghai layover: what you can see in 6, 10 or 24 hours at Pudong
How to use a Shanghai stopover on an Australian passport: visa-free rules for transit, how long you need between flights, three itineraries by length, and when it is not worth leaving the airport.
Pudong is a common connecting point on flights between Australia and Europe or North America, and China Eastern in particular sells cheap fares through it. If your layover is six hours or more, you can see the city. Here is how to decide and what to do.
Can you leave the airport?
Yes. Australian passport holders currently enter China visa-free for up to 30 days, which covers transit. You go through immigration like any arriving passenger, fingerprint on first entry, and come back through departures. There is also a separate 240-hour visa-free transit scheme for other nationalities, but Australians do not need it. Check the current end date of the visa-free policy before you rely on it; our visa guide keeps it up to date.
How much time do you actually have?
Subtract from your layover:
- 30 to 45 minutes to clear immigration on arrival (longer at peak times).
- 45 to 60 minutes to get into the city, the same back.
- 2 hours before your onward international departure to be back at the terminal.
That means a 6-hour layover gives you about 90 minutes in the city, a 10-hour layover gives you 5 to 6 hours, and a 24-hour layover is a real day with a hotel night. Under six hours, stay in the terminal.
Also check whether your bags are checked through. If you have to collect and re-check luggage, add an hour and consider the airport’s left-luggage counters.
6-hour layover: the Maglev and back
Ride the Maglev to Longyang Road (8 minutes, 300 km/h), have a coffee or a bowl of noodles in the station area, and ride it back. You have seen the fastest train in regular service and stretched your legs. Do not try to reach the Bund; you will spend the whole time in traffic.
10-hour layover: the Bund and the old town
Private car from the airport (about 50 minutes), drop at Yu Garden for a walk through the old town, lunch of xiaolongbao, walk the Bund, ferry across for the skyline photo, car back to the airport. About five hours door to door with a comfortable margin. This is our day guide half-day with airport pickup; a guide makes the timing work and handles tickets and payment so you are not learning Alipay on a deadline.
24-hour layover: an evening and a morning
Car to a hotel near the Bund or in the French Concession, evening walk on the Bund when the lights are on, dinner. Next morning Yu Garden early, the French Concession for coffee, back to the airport by early afternoon. If you land in the morning instead, reverse it and add the Shanghai Tower observation deck.
Practical notes
- Money and phone. Set up Alipay and an eSIM before you fly so the layover does not start with admin.
- Taxis. Use the official rank; have the destination in Chinese. A private car booked in advance removes the uncertainty on a tight timeline.
- Luggage. Left-luggage counters are in both terminals, charged by the hour.
- Lounges and hotels inside the airport. For layovers under six hours, or overnight ones arriving late, the airport hotels in Terminal 2 are the sensible option.
When not to bother
Layovers under six hours, arrivals after 9 pm with a morning departure, or anything during the first week of October. In those cases the terminal is the better choice.
