Hello! First, thank you for your informative site, it has been very useful.

I travelling to China this week. My flight arrives to Shanghai Pudong on May 13. The same evening I’ll be flying from Shanghai (Pudong also) to Wuhan. I was wondering about the construction fee you mentioned at your site. Do I have to pay it before entering a certain area?

I suppose there are some waiting areas (before the check-in)? I’m travelling alone and have to wait the whole day for my flight to Wuhan. I think it’s wise not to leave the airport so that I don’t miss the flight.

I hope you have time to answer, thank you already!

Best regards

from Finland

For the Airport Construction Fee, you still have to pay for it. Here is the reason.

If you transit to another flight in China airport from an international flight, and you don’t enter custom gate, you don’t need to pay for the fee. For example, if you are transition in an airport in China for international flight, for example, from SFO – Shanghai – other Asia countries, you don’t need to pay for airport construction fee.

In China, however, based on my knowledge, you always have to clear the custom or enter the custom gate at your arriving airport, like Pudong Airport, before you can transit to another domestic airport, so it is for sure that you need to pay the fee.

Whether Included in Ticket

It is worth checking to see whether the fee is included in the ticket price already. If you buy the ticket in China, it is for sure that it is included. From Sept 1, 2004, all tickets have that fee included. I don’t know about your travel agents. I checked expedia.com and it does not seem to have that fee included.

Check it in case you don’t need to pay it twice.

Maglev

You may try maglev if you have some time – it may take 1 hours for round trip (14 minutes in trip, and up to 40 minutes for waiting). Check these entries.