My wife and I are arriving in PVG at 16:15 on a Friday. We are departing PVG at 17:25 on the following Monday. We are staying at a hotel which is directly adjacent to the Langao stop on Line 7.

For our departure from Shanghai, I have already decided that we will take the subway from the hotel back to the airport, starting out on Line 7, then connecting to Line 2. We will plan to leave the hotel at least three hours before our flight.

I've read several comments on the China board that the subway can be very crowded from 17:00 to 19:00 on Fridays, which is the timeframe we would be leaving the airport. I'd like to also take the subway from airport to our hotel, but not if the trains will be packed. I would assume that anyone in the know would strongly suggest I suck it up and pay for a taxi to our hotel (which is several miles NW of the Bund area)?

Thanks for any replies.