The Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway

The Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway — 京沪高速铁路, Jīnghù Gāosù Tiělù — opened on 30 June 2011, 1,318 kilometres from Beijing South to Shanghai Hongqiao, built in one phase in a little over three years. The fastest train now covers it in 4 hours 18 minutes, with a single stop at Nanjing South.

For most of that time the train is not on the ground. About 1,140 kilometres of the line, 86.5 per cent, runs on bridges and viaducts. The longest of them, the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in Jiangsu, is 164.851 kilometres long, and holds the Guinness World Record as the longest bridge in the world; south of Beijing, the viaduct between Langfang and Qingxian runs for 114 kilometres. The line crosses the soft ground of the North China Plain and the Yangtze delta, and the Hai, the Yellow River, the Huai and the Yangtze. In the delta, where the soil is soft, the canals and lakes are dense and land is short, the viaduct was the answer: it keeps the track from settling, uses less land than an embankment, and keeps people and vehicles off the line.

This page rides the whole line by day, from Beijing South to Shanghai Hongqiao.

Beijing to the Yellow River

The trains leave Beijing South heading south-east, beside the old Beijing–Shanghai railway. From Langfang, past Tianjin South, to Qingxian, the train runs on one viaduct 114 kilometres long, and from the window the North China Plain is fields and villages seen from above; the lowest ground of the whole route is around Tuanbowa, south of Tianjin. The line then follows the Beijing–Taipei expressway south, past Dezhou, crosses the Yellow River three kilometres downstream of the expressway's bridge, and reaches Jinan West.

Mount Tai to the Yangtze

South of Jinan the line runs into the low hills of central and southern Shandong. Around Tai'an, at the foot of Mount Tai, it reaches the highest section of the route; then come Qufu East, for the home of Confucius, and Xuzhou East. South of Xuzhou the line comes down to the plain of the Huai, and crosses the Huai River at Bengbu, 1.2 kilometres downstream of the city's newer rail bridge. Approaching Nanjing it crosses the Yangtze on the Dashengguan Bridge, 20 kilometres upstream of the city's first Yangtze bridge of 1968, and runs into Nanjing South.

Across the delta

East of Nanjing the line runs alongside the Shanghai–Nanjing intercity railway. From Danyang it is on the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, past Changzhou, Wuxi and Suzhou, through a country of rice paddies, canals and lakes, with nine kilometres straight over the water of Yangcheng Lake. The bridge ends at Kunshan, and the train runs on into Shanghai Hongqiao.

The train

The line opened in 2011 with CRH380 trains, and today it is worked mainly by Fuxing trains — 复兴号, rejuvenation — the first high-speed trains designed and built in China. The first two ran in opposite directions on this line on 26 June 2017, and from 21 September that year they brought 350 km/h running back to it. The CR400AF is built by CRRC Qingdao Sifang and nicknamed the Red Dragon; the CR400BF, from CRRC Changchun, is the Golden Phoenix. The busiest workings use 17-car sets, 440 metres long with 1,283 seats, and since June 2024 the CR400AF-BS and CR400BF-BS versions have added a Premium First class between first and business.

About 45 high-speed trains a day run from Beijing South to Shanghai, the first at 06:18 and the last at 19:24; most go to Shanghai Hongqiao, and a few to Shanghai station. They differ in how often they stop, so the time varies from 4 hours 18 minutes to about 6 hours. A few of them, all daily:

The other way, the first train, G532, leaves Shanghai Hongqiao at 06:31, and the G2 leaves at 06:43 and reaches Beijing South at 11:32. The fastest northbound trains, G12 at 10:00 and G32 at 19:25, take 4 hours 24 minutes.

By night, and on the old line. The D7 sleeper leaves Beijing at 19:18 and reaches Shanghai at 07:25. The 1461 still runs the whole of the old line, leaving Beijing at 11:59 and stopping at 20 stations, including Tianjin West, Jinan, Taishan and Nanjing, before it reaches Shanghai at 06:45 the next morning, 18 hours 46 minutes later.

Times are from 12306 for Thursday 15 and Sunday 18 October 2026, and were the same on both days — as of October 2026. 12306 sells about two weeks ahead. Times are published by the operator: China Railway · 12306 (opens in a new tab).

Every ticket is sold on 12306 against your passport, which is then your ticket at the gates. Fares vary by train: on the fastest, the G1, G7 and G25, Beijing South to Shanghai Hongqiao is ¥661 in second class, ¥1,058 in first and ¥2,315 in business, with Premium First at ¥1,455 where a train has it. The slower G547 is ¥553, ¥929 and ¥1,995.

On the old line, the 1461 is ¥156.5 in hard seat and ¥283.5 for a hard sleeper berth, and a second-class berth on the D7 sleeper is ¥440.

No rail pass covers this line. Interrail and Eurail are European passes and do not reach China, and China Railway sells its seats one journey at a time on 12306, so the fare is simply the ticket.

Checked in October 2026.

Every place below is in Beijing or near a station on the line. Not every train stops everywhere, so pick one that calls where you want to get off: Jinan West for the springs, Tai'an for Mount Tai, Qufu East for the Confucian sites, Nanjing South for the city wall and Suzhou North for the gardens.

The two hotels below are at either end of the line: one beside Beijing South, for an early train, and one in Shanghai's Hongqiao district, where the trains arrive.

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