As others have stated above, PVG is the worst major transit airport in the region.

The fact that you had to go through immigration, collect your bags, go through customs, go outside of the terminal, take a bus to the other terminal, recheck your bags, go through security and go through exit immigration/customs are all testaments to how bad of a transit airport PVG is. Very few of the steps listed above would be needed at NRT/ICN/HKG etc.

The PVG terminals are very clean/newish but are quite desolate amenities-wise and most of the lounges are very very poor vs what is on offer at NRT/ICN/HKG etc. About the only thing I like about PVG are the Japanese toilets in some of the lounges.

Its great that it worked out for you but PVG really is a horribly inefficient place to connect, which is a real shame given the potential connections which exist there.


My opinion is based on years of traveling to/from PVG, in both the original terminal and the new one (not that there is much difference).