Shanghai railway stations: which station is your train from?

Which railway station in Shanghai does my train leave from?

The one printed on your 12306 ticket. Shanghai has no single main station. The Shanghai government counts four major stations and six smaller ones: Shanghai Hongqiao, Shanghai Railway Station, Shanghai South and Shanghai Songjiang, plus Shanghai West, Nanxiangbei, Antingbei, Antingxi, Jinshanbei and Liantang.

The city's own advice is to confirm your departure and arrival station before you travel, and to double-check the station name on the day so you are at the right place for your train. Hongqiao and Shanghai Railway Station are in different districts, so a wrong guess costs real time.

How many railway stations does Shanghai have, and which district is each in?

Ten, according to the Shanghai government's guide to railway stations in Shanghai (January 24, 2025). It gives metro lines for only five of them, so the other five have no line listed below.

That page does not say how to get from one station to another, or how long it takes. If you have to change stations, use the metro lines listed above for each one. Arriving by air instead? See Pudong Airport to the city, Hongqiao Airport to the city and Pudong to Hongqiao.

How do I read the station name on my 12306 ticket?

Match the name on your ticket to the table above, using the Chinese characters if you can. The 12306 English site prints the departure stations like this:

• Shanghaihongqiao (上海虹桥) is Shanghai Hongqiao.
• Shanghai (上海) is Shanghai Railway Station, the one on Moling Road. It is not a generic “Shanghai” and it is not Hongqiao.
• Shanghainan (上海南) is Shanghai South.
• Shanghaisongjiang (上海松江) is Shanghai Songjiang.
• Shanghaixi (上海西) is Shanghai West.
• Jinshanbei (金山北) and Liantang (练塘) are two of the smaller stations.

China Railway's own station list uses these spellings, in lower case: shanghai, shanghainan, shanghaihongqiao, shanghaixi, shanghaisongjiang, nanxiangbei, antingbei, antingxi, jinshanbei and liantang. These are the station-list spellings, not necessarily the exact form on a paper or app ticket, so rely on the Chinese characters as well.

Which Shanghai station has trains to Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou or Suzhou?

It depends on the train. The table below is a snapshot: the 12306 English site result for 14 October 2026, read on 6 October 2026, when searching from “Shanghai”. Train numbers and counts change by day and timetable. Each cell shows the number of trains you could board at that station, then the fastest journey time from it in that result. A train that stops at more than one Shanghai station is counted at each of them, so a column can add up to more than its total.

A dash means that station had no train to that city in that result. The counts include every train type 12306 shows (G, D, C, K, Z, T and Y, plus one train numbered without a letter), so they are not high-speed trains only. The Suzhou search also returned trains to Taicang, Changshu, Zhangjiagang and Shengze, so not every Suzhou count was a train to a station named Suzhou: 306 of the 394 trains reached a station named Suzhou.

What the 14 October 2026 snapshot shows

• Beijing: on 12306 for 14 October 2026, 38 of the 51 trains left from Shanghai Hongqiao. All 38 were G trains, from 06:31 to 19:25. Shanghai Railway Station had 9 (5 G, 2 D, 1 T and one train numbered without a letter, from 07:00 to 21:15). The 3 from Songjiang (2 D, 1 Z) and the 1 from Shanghai South (D10) were overnight trains, 18:42 to 21:14 and 21:05, taking 12h10m and 12h19m at best.
• Nanjing: on 12306 for 14 October 2026, Hongqiao had 176 of the 308 trains and Shanghai Railway Station 112. Seven Shanghai stations appeared in the results. One more Hongqiao row, G206, showed no times because ticketing was temporarily closed for a timetable adjustment, so it is not counted.
• Hangzhou: on 12306 for 14 October 2026, Hongqiao had 151 of 262 trains, Songjiang 75 and Shanghai South 73. 27 of the Songjiang trains also stopped at Hongqiao. Shanghai West had 3 (2 G, 1 Y).
• Suzhou: on 12306 for 14 October 2026, Hongqiao had 217 of 394 trains and Shanghai Railway Station 136. Hongqiao's fastest was G2, 21 minutes, to Suzhou North. Shorter rides to Suzhou South left from Songjiang (15 minutes) and Liantang (10 minutes).

Do not turn this into a rule. It describes one day on one search. Another day or another timetable can look different, and 12306 shows other stations too. The station on your own ticket is the one that counts.

Beijing and Hong Kong, as of January 2026

A Shanghai government report on the timetable that took effect on 26 January 2026 says the first Beijing-bound flagship train that stops only at major stations leaves Shanghai Hongqiao at 6:43 am, and the last one (renumbered G32) at 7:25 pm. It also says Beijing-Shanghai train pairs rose from 47 to 48. For Beijing, see Beijing railway stations for the other end of the trip.

For Hong Kong, the same report says Z99 last left Shanghai Railway Station on 12 January 2026. D99, an overnight sleeper from Shanghai South, replaces it. G384, G895 and G901 (renamed from G99) make three daily trains from Shanghai Hongqiao to Hong Kong. That is a January 2026 report, and timetables change.

The January 2026 report does not name a departure station for the new direct services to Luohe, Zhanjiang and Yan'an.

Security check, passport and how early to arrive

You need to pass a security check, and you need your passport. The 12306 English FAQ says all passengers and their belongings are subject to security check. You put your baggage in the dangerous goods inspector and walk through the security gate. It also says foreign passengers can buy real-name tickets with valid passports, and to carry the ID document used to buy the ticket.

How early? The FAQ gives no number of minutes. It says the ticket counter, station entrance, ticket gate and platforms are a few minutes' walk apart. It says there may be queues at the ticket window, security check, ID verification counter, ticket gate and baggage consignment counter, so reserve enough time. It also says ticket sales and checking stop before departure, and to refer to the station announcement for the time. Leave yourself margin for those walks and queues.

A January 2025 Shanghai government report has a photo of a foreign passenger at an information desk at Hongqiao Railway Station. It does not give the desk's hours or languages.

For refunds and changes, see 12306 refund and ticket change fees. For what you can and cannot carry, see power bank rules for flights and trains.

Is a new Shanghai station (Shanghai East, Baoshan) open yet?

No, and you cannot book a train from either. In a May 3, 2026 report, Xiao Hui, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Transport, said Shanghai East Railway Station in Zhuqiao town, Pudong New Area, is slated to begin operations by July 2027. The main structure was more than 50 percent complete, with construction expected to finish by the end of 2026. He called it poised to become Shanghai's second-largest transport hub.

Baoshan Railway Station, the starting point of the high-speed railway linking Shanghai and Sichuan province, is also expected to go into operation in July 2027. The report gives no metro line for Shanghai East and no list of train destinations for either station. China Railway's 12306 station list, read on 6 October 2026, has no entry for Shanghai East or Baoshan.

For a trip this year, plan around the ten stations in the table. For more about the city, see the Shanghai travel guide.