This page is only the timetable. It assumes you have decided to go for the day and need to know when to set the alarm. Whether the day trip is worth doing at all, and what two nights would buy instead, is answered on our Moganshan day trip page. Read that one first if you are still weighing it up.
Two conditions apply. The day below starts in central Shanghai, 200 to 240 km from a mountain in Deqing County, Huzhou prefecture, Zhejiang Province, 60 km north of Hangzhou. From Pudong the same trip runs 4 to 4 hours 45 minutes each way and will not fit. Your station is Deqing; the station called Moganshan is on another line, and Moganshan Road is the M50 art district back in Shanghai’s Putuo District.
Build the day backwards
Most one-day plans start at the alarm clock and run forwards. Wrong end. Build this one from the last vehicle out: the return is what fails.
Four fixed points shape the day. Only one is a train.
| Fixed point | The number | Why it governs |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer centers: Yucun, Fatou, Houwu | 08:00 to 18:00 | No private vehicle drives inside the scenic area. Everyone changes here |
| Y1 shuttle up, Deqing to the town | 7 departures, 07:30 to 16:00, RMB 10, 30 to 40 min | Nothing runs between 10:40 and 13:00 |
| Y1 shuttle down, town to Deqing | 08:40 to 17:00 | The 17:00 is your real deadline |
| Hongqiao to Deqing by rail | 63 min at fastest, 13 direct services a day | The generous part |
Rail frequencies, Y1 shuttle departures and transfer-center hours, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, 1 to 5 August 2026.
Look at the third row again. The centers shut at 18:00, but the last shuttle down goes an hour earlier, and it leaves from the town, a transfer below wherever you stand. Plan to 17:00.
The one decision at Deqing station
Forget the 07:30 shuttle, and the 08:40 with it. The earliest direct Hongqiao service is the D377, which leaves at 08:11 and reaches Deqing at 09:19, by which time both have gone. Thirteen services run in a day and the timetable is revised regularly, so check the live Hongqiao to Deqing times for your date: an earlier departure moves the whole day forward an hour. So, two ways to cover the last 30 km.
| Option | Cost | Leaves | Reaches the town |
|---|---|---|---|
| Y1 shuttle, the Republican-era tram | RMB 10 | 09:40 | About 10:20 |
| Taxi or van | About RMB 100 | When you find one | About 10:05 |
Fifteen minutes sounds like nothing, and the shuttle costs a tenth as much. But you wait twenty minutes at the Deqing Coach Center for it, and split two ways the taxi is RMB 50 each. With a bed at the end of the trip, take the shuttle. Here, pay the taxi.
The day, hour by hour
The whole day, then, on the D377 out and a taxi at Deqing. The third column matters most.
| Time | What you are doing | If this slips |
|---|---|---|
| 06:30 | Leave central Shanghai for Hongqiao | Leave at 07:00 and traffic decides the day |
| 07:20 | At Hongqiao. Huge station, slow security | Miss the 08:11 and the next documented train is the 12:12 |
| 08:11 | D377 leaves for Deqing | This row does not slip. Chinese trains keep time |
| 09:19 | Arrive Deqing, walk to the taxi rank | A late train takes the 09:40 shuttle too, so the taxi stops being optional |
| 09:35 | Taxi to Moganshan town, about 30 minutes | An empty rank means 40 minutes on a bench waiting for the shuttle |
| 10:05 | Moganshan town. Change at the Yucun transfer center | Nothing breaks. They open at 08:00 |
| 10:30 | First block: villa streets and Sword Pond | Every minute lost so far lands here |
| 12:30 | Lunch in Yucun, by the square or the 1932 culture park | Take ninety minutes and you have eaten your second block |
| 13:30 | Second block: Luhuadang Park, a bamboo path, or the Bai and Yun Art Museum | The only block you can shorten without losing a sight |
| 15:45 | Start back down toward the town | The row that ends the day. See below |
| 16:45 | At the Y1 stop in the town | Miss it and the station costs RMB 100 |
| 17:00 | Last Y1 down to Deqing, 30 to 40 minutes | After this, taxi only, with 18:00 closing behind |
| 17:40 | Deqing station, on whatever the evening timetable gives you | Fewer options than the morning |
| Evening | Train to Hongqiao. Book it in advance and note the time | Miss it and the day becomes an unplanned night in Deqing |
| About 20:30 | Central Shanghai |
The two rows that break the day
The first is 09:35. Everything before it is a chain with no slack. A slow ride to Hongqiao pushes the security queue, which pushes the train, which pushes the last mile. Mornings here do not recover.
The second is 15:45, the row people argue with. It reads an hour too early until you try it. Getting back takes longer than the map suggests, and you cannot reach the town without clearing a transfer center. That is why 18:00 matters even though your shuttle leaves at 17:00. Hold it even when the afternoon goes well. Movement up there is on getting around Moganshan, the ticketed core on the scenic area page.
Ticket prices also disagree: RMB 120 online and RMB 130 at the gate in one source, RMB 50 off-season and RMB 80 in peak in another. Winter is half price. Check when booking.
Scenic-area ticket ranges as given by both sources, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, 1 to 5 August 2026.
The same day from Hangzhou
Based in Hangzhou? Different trip, much easier. Hangzhou East to Deqing is 13 to 17 minutes over 35 km, 16 services a day, fares roughly RMB 16 to 67. By car it is 1 hour 20 to 1 hour 45 door to door, our estimate rather than a published figure.
Book it off the live Hangzhou East to Deqing timetable. On a day trip the departure you want is the earliest one you will actually make, since everything after it is decided by the shuttle.
That short train puts the early shuttles back in reach. Sixteen services a day means the schedule below is a shape rather than a fixed clock; slot your own departure into it.
| Time | What you are doing |
|---|---|
| About 08:10 | Hangzhou East, on any service landing at Deqing before 08:40 |
| 08:40 | Y1 shuttle, RMB 10, or a taxi at about RMB 100 |
| About 09:20 | Moganshan town, through the transfer center, morning ahead |
| 16:30 | Start back down |
| 17:00 | Last Y1 to Deqing |
| Evening | A short train back. With 16 a day, the last is less tight |
Close to seven hours on the mountain against about five from Shanghai, and you sleep in. If Hangzhou is anywhere in your itinerary, move the Moganshan day onto it.
What the day costs, and what it cannot hold
Back to Shanghai, and the bill. Door to door from Hongqiao is 2 hours 45 minutes to 3 hours 30 minutes, an estimate. Double it and about six hours goes on moving, roughly the same as the time you get on the ground. An hour of travel for every hour on the mountain.
Door-to-door estimates, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, 1 to 5 August 2026.
That hour buys the villa streets, Sword Pond, one park or a bamboo path, and lunch in Yucun. A real day out.
| What you miss | Why the clock takes it |
|---|---|
| The early bamboo | Forest cover runs over 92 percent, nearly all moso grown as a crop, and the paths are best before the day buses. Reaching town at 10:05 means that hour went without you |
| The villas at walking pace | About 250 historic stone villas survive here from the 1890s onward. Seeing two between blocks gets you a photograph and little else |
| A second village | Houwu alone sits 30 minutes from Yucun, and no spare hour exists here |
You lose nothing after dark. Chinese reporting is blunt: these villages have no evening economy and little late-night food. Staying over would not have fed you.
If that reads like a place worth doing properly, the weekend from Shanghai is the next step up, and our itineraries index sets one day against two and three nights. If the day is fixed, build back from 17:00 and see Shanghai to Moganshan by train.
Train times, shuttle departures and transfer-center hours last checked 6 August 2026. Confirm the evening return and the ticket price at booking.
Last checked 9 August 2026 by Echo Peng. Prices, timetables and entry rules on this mountain move without notice, so confirm anything you are booking around.
Photographs on this site are representative illustrations, not documentary images of the specific building, property or service described.
