How to travel between Shanghai and Nanjing

Train is the best way to travel between Shanghai and Nanjing. There are numerous trains between various stations in the above cities.

Train

Stations

• The most used stations in Shanghai are
• Shanghai Railway Station: older, but closer to the city centre
• Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station: newer, bigger, a bit further from city centre, close to HongQiao airport. Most high speed trains pass through here
• there is also SShanghai South Station , but not so used, old trains pass here
• The most used stations in Nanjing are
• Nanjing Station: older, but closer to the old city centre
• Nanjing South Station: newer, bigger, a bit further from city centre. Most high speed trains pass through here

Travel Time

• Generally 1-2hours. The fastest one is G8 or G10, final destination Beijing, going from SH HongQiao Station to NJ South Station
• Depends on where you stay, sometimes it's worth just take a longer train from the station closer to you as you need to take account long travel time from home/hotel to station anyway

Cost

• Average RMB150
• If you take earlier train it's cheaper, like RMB96 - normally departs from Shanghai South Station
• If you take the super long / old train (almost 4hrs) its RMB46.5
• You can buy tickets at station or on trip.com

Bus

• you can also take the bus between the main bus terminals
• takes 4hrs if the traffic is not bad. the highway between NJ and SH is often jammed
• cost around RMB 90 - better to just take the train

Flying-not recommended