Shanghai/Songjiang

Sōngjiāng (松江区 Sōngjiāng Qū) is a district of Shanghai, southwest of downtown and west of Minhang.

Songjiang is divided in two by the Huhang expressway. The northern part is the new town, Songjiang Xincheng. It is easily accessible, being at the end of metro line. The southern part near the river is the old town, where all the historic sights are.

Understand
Songjiang is a rapidly developing area with a mixture of old houses in the western parts of the town and growing areas of new houses and large shopping streets further east.

Get in
The city is located around 30km to the south-west of central Shanghai and is connected to downtown areas by buses and metro.

By metro
Take line to the end.

The Jinshan Railway has several stops in Songjiang, but express trains bypass some of them.

You can use metro line to Xinzhuang station, then change to line  until Jianchuan Lu. From that station, use the Songmin bus line (松闵线) which stops at the Songjiang Fangta pagoda and also in the city center and costs only ¥3.

By sightseeing bus
Get there by using sightseeing bus 1a from the east Shanghai stadium bus station, which leaves every 30 minutes between 7:30am and 5:30pm (¥10).

By taxi
From Shanghai city it's around ¥70. If you want to save a bit, use line to Xinzhuang station, then line  until Beiqiao station and take a taxi from there (around ¥40).

By train
There are almost 30 trains per day linking Songjiang with Shanghai Hongqiao and Shanghai South stations (services to/from Shanghai Hongqiao depart/arrive at Songjiang South while services to/from Shanghai South depart/arrive at Songjiang). Songjiang station is about 4km west of Fangta pagoda while Songjiang South is another 2km south of that.

By bus
The Songmin bus line runs west-east through the whole city and connects the sights, most importantly the area around the Xilin pagoda and the Fangta pagoda.

By taxi
Taxis are readily available and come at the same prices as in Shanghai city, ¥8 or ¥10 per km.

Also, be aware that the travel distance from Jiangchuan station to FangTi Yuan is over 1 hour bus journey, so plan your time accordingly. The park is also very small and takes around 20 minutes to walk around

See




University town
This area has its own "university town" metro station on line and a number of universities:


 * Shanghai International Studies University
 * Donghua University
 * DeTao Master Academy
 * Shanghai Institute of Visual Art
 * East China University of Political Science and Law
 * Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade
 * Shanghai Lixin University of Commerce
 * Shanghai University of Engineering Sciences
 * Sanda University

Several of these also have other campuses elsewhere.