SHA to Hangzhou by train and metro
 

For our first trip to China we will spend a long weekend in Hangzhou/Shanghai.

Have booked the Hyatt Hangzhou for an upcoming stay at the end of the month. We land on Friday in Hongqiao T1 from HND and were planning to take the metro to Honqiao train station and then buy a ticket for the high speed train to Hangzhou. Not sure if they take CC, so would it be best to exchange currency or use ATM at SHA?

Not knowing how long it will take us to go through customs I'm not sure if I should reserve train tickets in advance and just planning to buy for the next train when we arrive early afternoon. I noticed some trains go to Hangzhou East instead of the main station. Will it be possible to take the metro to the Hyatt from both stations since I've read that taxi lines can be very long. Some websites state that Hangzhou East station is not yet connected to the metro, but they might be out of date.

Also do we need to buy our tickets in advance for our return to Shanghai on Saturday afternoon since it will be more crowded on the weekend?

Thanks for your advice.

I would buy all your tickets in advance. Call ahead and ask your hotel to do it. Thats what I did for my train from Shanghai to Beijing. We left from Hongqiao as well.

They'll probably ask for a copy of your passport. Seemed to be a requirement. I stayed in a Hilton and they either wanted the cost charged to the room or paid in cash.

FYI when we got to Beijing, the Taxi line was at least 100 ppl long. Watchout for the scalpers who come up to you and try to get you to go with them and "skip the line." Don't do it.

Customs out of PVG took us less than 30 minutes (not sure how Hongqiao will compare) but it seem to be fairly empty when we arrived. Bags took longer than customs :)

Chinese hotels or travel agents normally refuse to bring tickets to the airport or other external location without an additional fee.

On the SHA issues:

- When you arrive at T1, the subway station of line 10 is about 300 metres to the right of the terminal when exiting. There is a covered walkway winding between the buildings to get there.

Other choices for transfer include the free "shuttle bus" driving inside the perimeter fence (luggage has to be carried inside by the passengers for security reasons) or then taxis using local roads to get to the other side of the tarmac.

- The money exchange I used to frequent at SHA T2 has closed due to lack of customers. It was hidden in the corridors linking the aiport terminal and the railway station. Not sure if other currency exchange locations exist there, T1 should still have one but with limited business hours.

T2 and T1 both have ATMs accepting foreign cards, not sure if the ATMs at the railway station do

- When buying walk-up tickets, prepare to wait for a few hours for the next available train. Might be quicker but this way you won't get disappointed as the number of travelers from SHA is huge.

The OP would also need to walk 300+ meters on the back end if using this subway plan. Plus, Line 10 can be a bit of a wait at T1 because only every other train goes there. If traveling with any sort of luggage, I would just bite the bullet and take a taxi in spite of the fact that the drive is senselessly circuitous (I'm thinking ~5 km v. 1 km on the subway).

There are plenty of ATMs in both buildings, so I wouldn't worry about that.

Thanks for all your advice^

Hoping Hongqiao customs doesn't take too long since there are so few international flights compared to PVG.
Sounds like I'll withdraw some cash from the ATMs on arrival and then take a taxi to the station if the lines are not too bad, with the metro as a backup. If I book my tickets in advance I could then simply pick them up at the station right? Would be willing to pay the agency fee if it saves the hassle of waiting in long lines and not being able to board the next train.

SHA arrival is normally quick and efficient.

I would exchange some RMB in advance due to the minimal chance of ATM malfunction but otherwise you can withdraw money at the arrivals level of T1

No taxi lines to speak of.

My one experience of getting railway tickets delivered to a larger group of people at SHA included going down to the subway station and picking up the tickets handed over the exit gate.

The young lady from the travel agent did not want to pay for the return ticket on the subway as it would not be reimbursed by the agency so she preferred this arrangement.

Please also have a Chinese local mobile phone prepared for this case as the employees of local travel agencies are not allowed to call foreign numbers for cost reasons. Or then call their given number at a set time.

Yes to your question... you still need to wait in a line to do this, but it's usually not that bad. The thing is, if your flight is delayed, you could end up missing your train, and then you'd be back at square one. Meanwhile, mosburger's "meet an agent at the subway station" plan sounds far more bothersome to me than waiting in a line for 5 minutes (to will call or purchase). Furthermore, I wouldn't dream of buying RMB in Japan (horrible rates), and would only exchange at SHA in the extremely unlikely event that the ATMs were all out of money.

Having just returned from Shanghai and experiencing the train system first hand the answer is YES, buy your tickets in advance and go for first class on the fastest train available. We went to the station to get the first set of tickets and you have to pay cash (RMB) and the next set we ordered through our hotel and paid 30 rmb service charge. Again in cash and well worth it. The last set of tickets we bought the night before we left as our plans were kind of flexible and we ended up on a slow stop & go train in coach with almost no room for luggage. We went from SHA to Yiwu where they don't have elevators of escalators so be careful about the amount of luggage you take. We stayed in a great 5 star hotel in Shanghai that was very reasonable if you're not booked yet.Have a great time!

I fail to see how booking in advance would really help the OP because he's presumably going to end up waiting in a line no matter what (there are plans to upgrade the eticket machines to spit out pre-paid tickets based on passport scans, but I'm not holding my breath to see this arrangement any time soon).

The OP's goals are presumably to: 1) minimize his time at Hongqiao; and 2) not miss his train.

Given the uncertainty of the airplane's arrival time, a conservative approach to #2 would necessitate a 2.5 hour cushion even though he could probably pull off the entire drill in around an hour.

Unless he is traveling at a particularly busy time, I'd be inclined to roll the dice and buy tickets at the station. That route has a staggering amount of supply.

I wasn't presuming anything & was only responding to the "first time in China and travelling by train" and noticed that he/she is also from N. America....thought they might appreciate some first hand reactions from a fellow inexperienced train traveller in China.

Appreciate all of your advice (even if you don't all agree). Since it's our first time, we'll try to make it as simple as possible. To be conservative I could book a later train in advance and the change to an earlier train when I pick up my ticket... or?

The Hongqiao-Hangzhou route does have 3-4 high speed trains per hour, so there are good chances of getting a seat on a weekday afternoon.
Any difference between Hangzhou main station or Hangzhou East? East station seems to be a little farther from the Hyatt, but I'd rather be on the next available train.

I believe you need a Chinese ID to purchase tickets in advance over the internet or phone? Or can a travel agent arrange for this and pick up at the ticket counter?

Nope. Ctrip also works, and with foreign cards (Chinese site only for will call tickets though).

They only accept cash for purchasing high-speed train tickets at the counters. You should purchase the return trip in Shanghai but all departures leaving from a different city incur a 5 yuan surcharge.

From my experience last year for a weekend getaway, it is impossible to get the next departure on-site. The trains run frequently but are often full. Prepare to wait up to an hour for the next available seat. This makes buying the return trip in advance even more crucial.

The Hyatt Regency is located right next to West Lake and is 2 stops on the metro from Hangzhou Station. Get off at Longxianqiao and walk 2 blocks west towards the lake. Hangzhou East is much further away but also has a metro stop.

Ended up booking some tickets through an agency to avoid the chance of finding the trains fully booked on arrival. Since the tickets are not very expensive the fees doubled the price from $30 r/t to $60 r/t, but that's still much cheaper than most countries. Our first choice at 14:07 was fully booked, but luckily someone else cancelled their tickets so we got the remaining seats. Got our visas yesterday as well, so we're all set ^