Huzzah! Line 2, Shanghai's busiest Metro line is stepping its game up beginning on Thursday, by shortening waiting times along certain stops, in addition to extending service hours. The move is being made to meet demand from travelers and residents who need evening access to the city's two airports. The stretch running from Guanglan Road Station to Pudong International Airport will now provide daily service from 6am to 10pm, extending the current daily service time by 1.5 hours. The waiting time between trains from Guanglan Road to Pudong Airport will be reduced to 7 minutes from the current 8.5 minutes during rush hour. Three extra trains will be added for the section between Guanglan Road and Yuandong Avenue, with services concluding at 10:24pm. As for the western section of Line 2, trains running from Yuandong Avenue station to East Xujing station (which includes both Hongqiao Airport stops) will have their intervals reduced to 6 minutes 42 seconds, down from the current time of 10 minutes. Current end of service for the downtown sections of Line 2 is 11pm. more ›

The Shanghai Airport Authority announced yesterday that Shanghai Pudong International Airport has been ranked 5th in the world according to the Airports Council International (ACI) customer satisfaction ratings. Surveys found that passengers were particularly happy with the toilets and the waiting areas, but think transportation between the airport and downtown could use improvement. Beijing's Capital International Airport came in just ahead of us in 4th place. But what's more impressive is how in a few short years, Asian airports have managed to almost sweep the top ten. more ›

Starting tomorrow, everyone will be able to ride Line 2 between Shanghai's two airports. Initial service from Guanglan Road Station to the Pudong International Airport Station will last from 9am to 4pm (though they'll increase the hours before the Expo starts). Getting there from Hongqiao Airport will cost 8RMB and take roughly two hours. more ›

... or most efficient. This little animation has been making the rounds on the internet recently and as is the way with animated gifs, there's very little background information we can find. One thing we know: it's definitely at Pudong International Airport. Anything else, well... we'd have to human flesh search him to find out (anyone up for the task?). more ›

Yesterday morning at 8:12am, a Zimbabwe-registered cargo plane crashed on takeoff at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport, killing three of its crew and injuring four. The plane, which was bound for Kyrgyzstan, caught fire shortly after lifting off the runway. more ›

• Shanghai Hongqiao and Shanghai Pudong are "destined" to be consolidated - though noone knows when the integration will happen. [Trading Markets]
• Paul French visits the Hong Kong Museum of History and has a few choice words to say about how Hong Kong compared back in the day. It was no Shanghai. [China Rhyming]
• You probably voted in their Best of Shanghai awards, now hit up That's Shanghai Best of Food & Drink voting section. [Urbanatomy]

By Cindy Nawilis more ›

Photo from Shanghai Daily. more ›

From Shanghai Daily:

SHANGHAI issued an orange alert for heavy fog this morning. It was the first orange fog warning since winter began early this month. more ›

Following a successful flight from Shanghai to San Francisco, a body was discovered in the nose wheel well of United Airlines flight 858. Mechanics discovered the body during a routine post-flight inspection after the plane landed at 7:42am, Thursday morning. According to investigators, the man was of Chinese Asian descent and in his 50s. more ›

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Hollywood actress Sharon Stone arrived in Shanghai late Tuesday night at Pudong International Airport. After passing immigration casually dressed in white slacks and a dark long-sleeved top, she was quickly driven downtown in a Mercedes Sedan to the JW Marriott Hotel. more ›

This morning, Chinese language news portal 163.com had a great scoop, and revealed the future planning for Shanghai and China's Maglev railway system. more ›

For more del.icio.us links, visit the Shanghaiist Contribute page, which is updated throughout the day. more ›

The airport was Hongqiao, not Pudong. And, yes, the airline was China Eastern. This happened yesterday afternoon at 2:09, when a Boeing 737-300 was arriving from Qingdao. None of the roughly 100 passengers on board was reported injured in the accident — passengers and luggage were evacuated from the aircraft in around 30 minutes — but Hongqiao Aiport, the city's main hub for domestic flights, was closed and normal operations didn't resume there until 6:45 pm. (And, like most Chinese airports, there is not much to do — or eat — if you have to wait around for a long time.) Some 30 to 40 inbound flights were rerouted to Pudong International Airport during the closure. more ›

So, it was reported yesterday that Chinese citizens no longer have to fill out entry forms upon returning to China, and that this move eliminates "a major bottleneck at airports and border crossings." And we still can't figure out how this will have any effect on the amount of time people, even Chinese citizens, wait in line at Pudong International Airport. One would assume Chinese citizens still have to present passports upon arrival, and that is what takes up the most time anyway. The forms just get thrown into a pile. And it's not as though the filling out of the forms was causing any sort of delay, since most of them are filled out on the airplane. So we're not sure what help this will be to anyone other than the people who had to do whatever it is they do with these forms after the fact (we always assumed they just got thrown into David Brent's "special filing cabinet"). Maybe we're missing something — could someone please enlighten us? more ›

Regarding yesterday's afternoon siesta taken by Shanghai's Pudong International Airport, one informed reader offered the following scenario: more ›

From a reader we learned that all flights leaving and arriving at Pudong airport after 2 pm were canceled or rerouted. They sent us a link to the only new story on this so far, which is from the AP: more ›

Shanghaiist wound the clock back a few years yesterday afternoon at the New Jiangwan City SMP Skate Park (the biggest in the world!) watching a scarily young posse of locals and laowai get around a massive series of concrete bowls and ramps on skateboards, inline skates, BMXs, motorbikes and scooters. There were plenty of t-shirts with statements, lots of spills, some impressive frontside-180-nosegrind-to-fakies, and far too many members of the local constabulary considering the modest size of the crowd. more ›

Here are Miss Chen's qualifications for the 2006 Da Er Wen (达尔文) Award: more ›

For our recent trip to the US, we decided to check out American Airlines' nonstop service from Shanghai to Chicago, which they launched in April. Since moving here in 2002, we have primarily used Northwest Airlines' Shanghai-Tokyo-New York route, save for a couple legs on JAL and Air Canada, whose website is embarrassingly incompatible with Safari. American is now our airline of choice for flying home. Here are some notes on our travel experience: more ›

We'll admit it: When we first saw the map at ShanghaiClimb.com, we thought it might be an addendum to the "14 ways to die in Shanghai" map. But it's not (not yet, at least -- as far as we know no one died during the first month that normal folk were allowed to walk to the top of the world's longest arch bridge). On April 28, the Shanghai Yangzi International Travel Agency opened the Lupu Bridge hike -- 367 steps to the top of the arch, 100 meters above the Huangpu River. During this "trial-run," the duration of which we aren't sure of, the activity costs 68 RMB. Later the price will get bumped up to 80 RMB. You know, we actually might do this. This is about the closest thing to hiking we've got in downtown Shanghai. (And if walking up a bunch of steps crowded with tourists isn't your idea of "hiking," then you haven't attempted much hiking in China.) We're also intrigued by the hike's "emergency route," which by the looks of the diagram, includes rappelling down one of the bridge's supports. more ›

A large crowd greeted Tyson at the airport when he arrived, however, he was quickly whisked off to Jinjiang Hotel on No.59, Maoming Road S., one of the city’s most historic hotels and an appointed venue hosting top officials from home and abroad. more ›

So, we saw this post titled "423 KPH on the Shanghai Maglev" over on Gridskipper: more ›

We have had some really long layovers at the Narita Airport. On our way to Hawaii a couple weeks ago, we were there for eight hours. And yesterday, on our way back, it was around five hours. Luckily, Narita isn't a bad place to hang out. If you have a computer with you, a day's worth of internet access, wireless or wired, costs you just US$5. And the wireless works most places in the airport (Terminal 1, at least ... we've never been to Terminal 2). We usually head down to the lounge beneath gates 25 and 26, where a lot of the Northwest Airlines flights leave from. It is often empty down there, for some reason, but there are plenty of desks with internet hookups, as well as rows and rows of reclining chairs aimed at flat screen TVs. more ›

Shanghaiist is always relieved to hear that we’re flying out of Hongqiao rather than Pudong airport. First, Pudong is just so far away (anyone know if they’ll be extending the Maglev anytime soon?). Second, the food at the Pudong International Airport is … well, we don’t want to bring it up again (literally). Not that Hongqiao is brimming with quality dining establishments, just that it’s so much quicker to get there from the city and it’s often for a domestic flight, so you don’t feel the need to kill time by eating. more ›

Starbucks leftovers at the Pudong airport more ›

Big Bird! The Thanksgiving week has been, appropriately, quite busy in regards to China's ongoing bout against the deadly avian influenza virus. Even our precious hometown Shanghai is beginning to feel the pinch. more ›

The China Daily reports that an expansion to Shanghai's Pudong International Airport is expected to be completed by 2007 and cost $1.23 billion. The expansion includes a third runway and a new terminal, upping the airport's capacity from 20 million passengers per year to 60 million. Eleven million used the airport last year. more ›