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Shanghai is the easiest large Chinese city to ship into and one of the hardest to deliver in. Containers arrive at the busiest box port on the planet and clear quickly. Then the lorry has to reach a third floor lane house with no lift, or book a service lift slot in a Pudong tower six weeks ahead. The sea leg is the simple part.
Send the details once and we match you with one vetted mover from our network that handles this route. Shanghai has more international moving traffic than anywhere else in the country, so the firms that work it well know which compounds need management approval and which lanes a seven and a half tonne lorry simply cannot enter.
Two ports serve the city. Yangshan sits out in Hangzhou Bay, reached by the Donghai Bridge, and takes the deepest ships. Waigaoqiao sits on the Huangpu closer to town. Which one your box lands at affects the road leg by an hour or two, not by days, so it rarely changes the price much.
Shanghai handles more containers than any other port anywhere, and the clearance machinery reflects that. Paperwork that would sit for a week at a smaller port often moves in two or three days here. That is the single biggest practical advantage of shipping to Shanghai rather than to an inland city.
Yangshan takes the largest vessels. It sits thirty two kilometres offshore, linked to Pudong by the Donghai Bridge, so a container landing there crosses the bridge before it reaches the mainland road network. Waigaoqiao is closer in, on the Huangpu, and tends to handle smaller feeder services. Either way the drive to a city address is under two hours in normal traffic.
The complication is when the lorry may travel. Goods vehicles face restrictions on the raised expressways, the Yan'an and the North South, during daylight hours. Deliveries into the centre are often scheduled early morning or evening as a result. A mover who works Shanghai regularly will build that into the plan without being asked.
This is where Shanghai moves go wrong, and it is worth being specific about it.
The former French Concession, covering parts of Xuhui and Huangpu, is the district most British families want and the hardest to deliver to. Shikumen lane houses open off narrow alleys lined with plane trees. A large lorry parks on the main road and everything is carried in by hand, sometimes two or three hundred metres. Stairwells are steep, turns are tight, and a three seat sofa often will not go up at all. Crews who work the area know which pieces need a window hoist.
Jing'an mixes 1930s apartment blocks with newer towers. The older blocks have small lifts that were never intended for wardrobes, so expect a stair carry above the second floor.
Pudong, particularly the Jinqiao and Lianyang compounds, is the opposite problem. Access is good, but the building management controls it. Service lifts are booked in advance, protective padding is required, insurance certificates are checked at the gate, and moves outside permitted hours are simply refused. Six weeks of notice is not unusual in the busier compounds.
Hongqiao and Minhang in the west hold most of the villa housing near the international schools. Access there is genuinely easy, which is part of why families with a lot of furniture end up choosing it.
These are planning bands, not quotes. Shanghai prices sit at the lower end for China because the port is efficient and the road leg is short. Where the money goes instead is labour at the delivery end, because a hand carry into a lane house takes a crew far longer than a lift does.
Plan for around £250 to £1,100
Students, single people and anyone furnishing a serviced flat.
Plan for around £1,300 to £3,400
A one or two bedroom flat. Common for the French Concession, where big furniture will not fit anyway.
Plan for around £3,600 to £8,500
Family homes heading for Hongqiao, Minhang or a larger Pudong flat.
Tell us the district and the building type. That is what actually sets the price in Shanghai.
We match you with your vetted mover, which means one team handles everything. It is free, with no obligation. Get a relocation quote today and hold your dates.
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Shanghai clearance is handled at the port and is usually among the quickest in China. You still need a valid residence permit, a full inventory with values, and your passport available on the day. New goods still in packaging draw attention here as much as anywhere.
The national rules are the same across mainland China, so the detail on permits, restricted goods and the cultural relics rule is set out in full on the China removals and shipping page. Read that before you start packing, particularly the section on items made before 1949.
Shanghai sends more people home to Britain than any other Chinese city. Contracts end, companies restructure, children reach secondary school age. The return shipment is usually larger than the one that came out, because five years of living somewhere adds up.
Two things to sort early. Apply for Transfer of Residence relief with HMRC before the goods leave, because the reference number has to be on the customs entry when the container lands. And have anything old assessed for the cultural relics rule. Shanghai's antique markets are good, which is exactly why so many returning families own something that needs an export certificate.
A move usually means moving money too, whether that is a deposit on a Shanghai flat or funds coming back the other way. We have helped customers with currency exchange in any currency through trusted partners for many years, and our partners can help with the money side of your move. Mention it on the form and it gets included.
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Shanghai is the arrival port for most of the Yangtze Delta. If your address is in one of these, the container still clears here.
For the full picture on routes, sea freight, rail freight, costs and Chinese customs, start at the China shipping and moving page.
By sea, allow around six to eight weeks door to door. The sailing itself is roughly thirty to thirty five days, clearance at Yangshan or Waigaoqiao usually takes a few working days, and the rest is collection, loading and delivery scheduling. Air freight cuts it to about ten days. Shanghai is quicker than most Chinese cities because the port clears fast and the road leg is short.
Either Yangshan or Waigaoqiao. Yangshan sits offshore in Hangzhou Bay and is reached by the Donghai Bridge, taking the largest vessels. Waigaoqiao is nearer the city on the Huangpu. The shipping line decides, not you. The difference to your delivery is an hour or two of driving, so it rarely affects the price.
Usually not to the door. Shikumen lanes are too narrow for a full size vehicle, so the lorry parks on the nearest main road and the crew carries everything in. Distances of a hundred to three hundred metres are normal. Tell your mover the address is a lane house when you ask for a price, because the labour is what you are paying for.
Almost certainly. Compounds in Jinqiao, Lianyang and the CBD towers control service lift access through building management. You book a slot, provide the mover's insurance details, and accept the permitted hours. Popular compounds are booked several weeks ahead, so do this as soon as you have a tenancy date.
Often not, and not just because of floor space. The obstacle is the stairwell or the lift door on the way in. Three seat sofas, large wardrobes and king size bed frames are the usual casualties in older buildings. Measure your stairwell turn before you decide to ship them rather than after.
Typhoon season, roughly July to September, can hold sailings and back up the port. Chinese New Year is the other one, when the whole logistics chain slows for a fortnight or more. If your date can move, the spring and late autumn windows run more predictably.
That depends on the insurance terms your mover offers. Owner packed boxes are usually cheaper but carry narrower cover, and some policies exclude breakage in cartons the crew did not pack. Ask what changes before you decide, because on a Shanghai delivery involving a long hand carry the risk is not trivial.
Relief is possible where you hold a valid residence permit and the goods arrive as one shipment within the permitted window after you do. They must be used personal effects in reasonable quantity, listed on a full valued inventory. Check the current position with Chinese customs before booking, because the detail changes.
Apply for Transfer of Residence relief with HMRC first, because the reference has to appear on the customs entry and approval takes time. Then get any antiques assessed for an export certificate. Then book the survey. Doing it in that order avoids a container sitting at Felixstowe waiting for paperwork.
Send your collection address, your Shanghai district, a rough idea of the volume and your date. A vetted mover from our network checks the route, the access and the paperwork, then comes back to you with the price.
Send your move detailsWe match international moving enquiries with vetted moving companies in the AGM Group network, each holding FIDI FAIM certification and BAR Overseas membership.
We are not a removal firm ourselves. We find you the one that suits your route, and you deal with them directly from there.