The Moganshan shuttle system: both transfer centres, both fares, last bus down

The Moganshan shuttle bus is not one service. It is three, paid for separately, and the one that ends your day ends it earlier than the gate does. Your car stops at a transfer centre at the foot of the mountain. A coach takes you up. A smaller bus loops the sights at the top. Two weekend lines link the villages. Each has a fare and a last departure, and no English page we could find prints them together.

Moganshan (莫干山) is in Deqing County (德清县), Huzhou (湖州), Zhejiang Province (浙江省), about 60 km north of Hangzhou and 200 to 240 km from Shanghai. Moganshan Road in Shanghai, home of the M50 art district, is a different place with no gate and no shuttle.

Two transfer centres, or three

Ask the scenic area and you may be told two. Read the paperwork and you get three. When Tide News (潮新闻) drove up in December 2025, a member of staff told the reporters that two transfer points were set up when the road closed to cars in 2018.

A staff member’s account of two transfer points set up in 2018, Tide News (潮新闻), 4 December 2025, tier 2. https://tidenews.com.cn/news.html?id=3315585

The written record says three, and has since a 2019 travel report: the main transfer centre at Yucun (庾村), Fatou (筏头) on the provincial road S304, and Houwu (后坞) off the same road. Our getting around page says three, and the private car ban page prints the route each one feeds and what parking costs.

Three transfer points, their locations and the routes they serve, Sohu Travel (搜狐旅游, 权哥探店), 2 July 2019, tier 3. https://www.sohu.com/a/324235488_357973

Which one matters. Houwu is what a driver from the west meets first, and the only one with a recent timetable in print. Yucun is the one every taxi knows. Fatou is where you get sent when the Yucun car park fills.

What the Moganshan shuttle bus costs

Every figure below is dated and printed by a named source. None of them is current, and no official page we can reach confirms any of them.

Transfer centre opened with 500 parking spaces, a RMB 35 return coach fare and a RMB 18 single fare down, as announced by Deqing Culture and Tourism (德清文旅), 7 December 2018, tier 4, reproduced on 163.com. https://m.163.com/dy/article/E2EU8TUV0518SHA7.html

Entry at RMB 80, coach up and down at RMB 35 and the loop bus at RMB 15, RMB 130 in total, Youxiake (游侠客), guide by 金二思, 22 June 2020, tier 3. https://www.youxiake.com/gonglue/view?id=4306

The Youxiake guide is headlined for 2026, sits near the top of the Chinese results and has been read 74,000 times. The date in its own page metadata is 22 June 2020. So the stack of numbers everybody quotes is six years old, and RMB 130 is an order of magnitude rather than a bill.

The last bus down is the number that matters

A ticket that expires costs money. A last bus that has gone costs the evening. The only recent timetable in print is the board at Houwu, read off the sign by reporters in December 2025.

Houwu transfer point timetable, departing when full and otherwise every 30 minutes, Tide News (潮新闻), 4 December 2025, tier 2. https://tidenews.com.cn/news.html?id=3315585

A trip report from an August 2019 visit gives the same last departure from the top, 17:00 from Yinshan Street (荫山街), in high summer. Our own desk check in August 2026 gave the centres a longer day, 08:00 to 18:00, and that figure sits on two of our pages. Three readings from three different dates, and the seasonal calendar behind them is not published where a visitor can reach it.

Last coach down from Yinshan Street at 17:00 in an August 2019 visit, Youxiake community (游侠客社区), trip report by 喵喵酱旅行, tier 3, undated page, dated by its own account of the visit. https://bbs.youxiake.com/y/1022265.html

Transfer centre hours of 08:00 to 18:00, BeyondBorder Group Ltd desk research, 1 to 5 August 2026.

Plan against 17:00 and you are never caught out. Ask the driver on the way up what time he comes back down, which is what the Chinese guides have been telling their own readers since 2019.

Two lines opened in 2025 that no English page carries

On 21 June 2025 the resort opened two themed bus lines, named after the two races the mountain hosts. Both charge RMB 5 a trip, which makes them the cheapest way to move between villages that are otherwise a taxi apart.

Both ran May to October, on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

Two themed tourism lines opened on 21 June 2025, both at RMB 5 a trip, with their routes, stops and hours, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 24 June 2025, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/06/24/034991600.shtml

The stop lists say what they are for. The Spartan line threads the western guesthouse belt, where moving between villages has always meant calling a car. The Kailas line links the northern villages to Yucun.

One caution. That report covers the 2025 season. No dated source confirms either line ran in 2026, and a seasonal weekend service is the kind of thing that quietly does not come back, so ask at the centre before you count on it.

Luggage and dogs, where the record contradicts itself

The transfer is the worst moment of a Moganshan trip with bags. Everything comes off one vehicle and onto another, outdoors.

One Chinese trip report, describing an August 2019 visit, says the service desk at the main centre stores luggage free, keeps free cages for the large dogs that cannot go up the mountain, and lends small carriers against a returnable deposit. No other account says so.

Free luggage storage at the service desk and free dog cages at the main centre during an August 2019 visit, Youxiake community (游侠客社区), trip report by 喵喵酱旅行, tier 3, undated page, dated by its own account. https://bbs.youxiake.com/y/1022265.html

Our own check in August 2026 found no left luggage service, and that is what the getting around page says today. Both cannot be right. Either the service closed in the seven years between, or our check missed a desk that does not advertise itself in English. Nobody here has rung the scenic area to settle it.

No left luggage service at the transfer centres, BeyondBorder Group Ltd desk research, 1 to 5 August 2026.

So carry your bags up, or leave them at the property. A free store, if it is still there, is a bonus. On dogs both accounts agree: a large one does not go up the mountain.

Who does not need any of this

Most first visits never touch the coach. The guesthouses and the restaurants sit below the gate, in Yucun, Xiantan, Laoling and Houwu, and a taxi reaches all of them. What the transfer centre protects is the old hill station at the top, and that needs a ticket as well as a fare.

The people who do need it are day trippers and anyone sleeping inside the boundary without a car registered to their property. Their chain is fixed: train to Deqing station, Y1 bus or taxi to the transfer centre, coach up, loop bus at the top, then all of it reversed before the last departure. Work backwards from 17:00, not forwards from breakfast. The tickets and entry page has what the gate costs, and the planning FAQ answers what is left.

Last checked 17 September 2026 by Cyril Drouin. 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.