The Shanghai metro, step by step: paying with Alipay, security, the lines that matter and the etiquette
A first-timer's walkthrough for Australians: how to pay (the Alipay transport code, the Metro app, single tickets), the bag check at every entrance, reading the map and the English signage, the lines visitors use (2, 10, 1, 11, 17), the airport and Hongqiao connections, fares, hours, lifts and prams, luggage, children, peak-hour reality, and the unwritten rules.
The Shanghai metro is the largest in the world by length, carries ten million people a day, and is the thing that makes Shanghai an easy city for a visitor: clean, cheap, air-conditioned, signed in English, and running every few minutes. It also has a few steps that stop first-timers at the gate. This is the whole process, from the entrance to the seat, written for someone who has never used it.
Step 1: the bag check
Every station entrance has an X-ray machine and a security guard. Put bags on the belt, walk through the arch, collect bags. It takes ten seconds when quiet and a couple of minutes at peak; large luggage goes through the same machine. Liquids are fine; knives and aerosols are not. It is routine and nobody is singled out.
Step 2: paying
Three ways, in order of convenience:
- Alipay’s transport code. Open Alipay, tap Transport (or search “Shanghai Metro”), choose Shanghai, and a QR code appears. Hold it to the scanner on the gate (the glass panel on top), the gate opens, and the fare is charged when you scan out at the other end. Set this up once before you fly, as the Alipay guide explains; it works on the first try at the gate if the app is already linked to a card. WeChat Pay has the same function.
- The Shanghai Metro app (“Metro 大都会”), which generates the same kind of code; useful if Alipay misbehaves, but it needs its own setup.
- Single tickets or a stored-value card from the machines in every station, which have an English mode: choose the destination on the map, pay by Alipay, WeChat or cash (notes and coins), take the plastic token or card, tap it on the gate going in and feed it into the slot going out. Slower, and the fallback that always works.
Fares are by distance and tiny: a short hop costs the equivalent of under a dollar, the longest journey across the city two or three. Children under 1.3 metres travel free with an adult (the rule is checked by a height mark at the gate).
Step 3: finding the platform
Lines are numbered and coloured; signs show the line number, the colour and the terminus station in each direction, in Chinese and English. Work out which terminus is in your direction from the map (every station has one, and Apple Maps or the Metro app plans the route and tells you the terminus). Follow the colour and the terminus name down to the platform. Platform screen doors mark where the train doors open; queue to the sides of the marked door and let people off first, which is enforced by attendants at busy stations.
Inside the train, a route map above the door lights the next station and announcements are in Mandarin and English. Interchanges are signed by colour; some (People’s Square, Century Avenue, Hongqiao) involve a long walk between lines, which the app’s time estimate includes.
Step 4: getting out
Scan the same code or feed the token at the exit gate. Exits are lettered and signed with the streets and landmarks they serve, in English; check the exit letter in the app before you surface, since a wrong exit at a big station can put you across an eight-lane road from where you wanted to be.
The lines a visitor uses
| Line | Colour | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Green | The spine: Pudong airport, Lujiazui, Nanjing Road East (the Bund), People’s Square, Jing’an Temple, Hongqiao airport and station. Note that some trains from the city terminate at Guanglan Road short of the airport; change across the platform. |
| 10 | Lilac | Yu Garden, the Bund’s southern end, the French Concession (Shaanxi South Road, Shanghai Library), Hongqiao. |
| 1 | Red | People’s Square south through the Concession (Shaanxi South Road, Hengshan Road) to Xujiahui; north to Shanghai Railway Station. |
| 11 | Maroon | Disneyland (the terminus), via the western suburbs. |
| 17 | Rose | Zhujiajiao water town, from Hongqiao. |
| 13 | Pink | Xintiandi and the Natural History Museum. |
| Maglev | Separate | Pudong airport to Longyang Road (line 2 and 7) in eight minutes; a separate ticket. |
Hours and peak times
Trains run from about 5.30 am to 10.30 or 11.30 pm depending on the line; check the last train for your line on the platform board if you are out late, and plan a DiDi otherwise, as the getting around guide covers. Peak hours are 7.30 to 9.30 am and 5 to 7 pm; line 2 through the centre and line 1 south are genuinely packed then, with attendants pushing. Travel outside those hours with children, prams or luggage.
Prams, wheelchairs, luggage
Most central stations have a lift from the street and to the platform, usually at one exit; the station map and the app show which. Escalators are everywhere; stairs-only exits exist at older stations. Staff will help with a pram on request. Luggage is allowed and common on line 2 to the airports, with space at the carriage ends; a full-size suitcase at peak hour on line 1 is a mistake. The baby and toddler guide and the elderly parents guide have more.
The unwritten rules
- Queue at the marked doors and let passengers off before boarding; the arrows on the platform show where.
- No eating or drinking in the carriages (water is tolerated); it is a rule and it is kept.
- Priority seats at the carriage ends are for the elderly, pregnant and disabled, and people do give them up.
- Bags off the seat, phones on silent, no loud calls; the carriages are quiet by Australian standards.
- Stand on the right of escalators, walk on the left, as at home.
- Pickpockets are rare; a bag in front at peak hour is enough.
Beijing’s metro, briefly
The same system with different colours: bag checks at every entrance (and a passport check at some stations near Tiananmen), Alipay or WeChat transport codes for Beijing, lines 1 and 2 for the centre, line 4 for the Summer Palace and Beijing South, and the airport express lines. The Beijing itinerary uses it for the cross-town hops and a car for the Wall.
When to skip it
An evening in the French Concession on foot, a day with three or more stops across the city, a family with a toddler at 8 am, and anything after midnight: a DiDi or a car, as the getting around guide sets out. On our day guide bookings the guide uses the metro when it is faster and the car when it is kinder, and shows you the Alipay code on the first morning so the rest of the trip is yours.
