Buying trip in Shanghai for chinese antique furniture

After about a 45 minute taxi ride, our first furniture vendor, Royal (the English name he has taken), greeted us at an intersection in his part of the metropolis and then drove us in his van to his furniture warehouse. His warehouse offered us rows and rows of stacked furniture to choose from. Not being air conditioned, the place was hot, humid, dimly lit and dusty; ah, warehouse shopping in Shanghai. Hand-selecting our furniture is very important to us and we think to our customers. This process allows us to inspect each piece by seeing and touching, looking inside drawers, testing finishes, accessing the craftsmanship and to ask questions from the suppliers. We have rejected many pieces because they did not meet with our standards.

We felt comfortable with Royal's knowledge of the furniture and the furniture business. Royal's true passion is designing furniture with a new interpretation of Chinese style. We learned that he personally collects furniture, from around China, and restores and/or repairs the piece as needed in his warehouse. Over the centuries, much of the antique stock of furniture, in China, has been damaged due to neglect and the conditions in which they have been housed. We hand-selected about 45 pieces of furniture from his collection.

Shanghai to Yiwu by Train:
I highly suggest: take a Shanghai to Yiwu fast train come to Yiwu without stopping at Shanghai, IF you arrive in Pudong airport between 03:30 to 20:00(GMT+08:00). Otherwise, you'll need to stay in Shanghai for one night before coming to Yiwu.

On Shanghai to Yiwu train schedule (will update very soon), you can find that trains from Shanghai to Yiwu actually start from two different stations - Shanghai Hongqiao train station and Shanghai South train station. All Shanghai to Yiwu bullet trains start from Shanghai Hongqiao train station. The rest start from Shanghai South train station.

#1 From Pudong airport to Yiwu:

Bullet trains are much faster. It takes about 2 - 2.5 hrs. Below is the time table for bullet trains start from Shanghai Hongqiao train station to Yiwu:
D291 leaves Shanghai Hongqiao Train Station at 06:40(GMT+08:00), arrives Yiwu at 08:43(GMT+08:00), Duration: 2hrs 3mins
D5651 leaves Shanghai Hongqiao Train Station at 07:08(GMT+08:00), arrives Yiwu at 9:37(GMT+08:00), Duration: 2hrs 29mins
D5689 leaves Shanghai Hongqiao Train Station at 07:45(GMT+08:00), arrives Yiwu at 9:58(GMT+08:00),Duration: 2hrs 13mins
D97 leaves Shanghai Hongqiao Train Station at 10:53(GMT+08:00), arrives Yiwu at 12:59(GMT+08:00),Duration: 2hrs 06mins
D5663 leaves Shanghai Hongqiao Train Station at 14:06(GMT+08:00), arrives Yiwu at 16:12(GMT+08:00),Duration: 2hrs 6mins
D93 leaves Shanghai Hongqiao Train Station at 14:11(GMT+08:00), arrives Yiwu at 16:19(GMT+08:00),Duration: 2hrs 8mins
D105 leaves Shanghai Hongqiao Train Station at 15:26(GMT+08:00), arrives Yiwu at 17:35(GMT+08:00),Duration: 2hrs 9mins
D5653 leaves Shanghai Hongqiao Train Station at 15:32(GMT+08:00), arrives Yiwu at 17:55(GMT+08:00),Duration: 2hrs 23mins
D201 leaves Shanghai Hongqiao Train Station at 17:15(GMT+08:00), arrives Yiwu at 19:19(GMT+08:00),Duration: 2hrs 4mins
D203 leaves Shanghai Hongqiao Train Station at 19:22(GMT+08:00), arrives Yiwu at 21:22(GMT+08:00),Duration: 2hrs 0mins
D217 leaves Shanghai Hongqiao Train Station at 22:30(GMT+08:00), arrives Yiwu at 00:28(GMT+08:00),Duration: 1hrs 58mins
* If you're arriving in from 06:00 to 21:00 (GMT+08:00), going to Shanghai Hongqiao train station from Pudong airport is actually pretty easy. You just need to take metro line 2.

Line 2(Pudong International Airport to East Xujing),60km in length, including 31 stations, is a west-east directional metro line connecting two sides of HuangPu River, and crossing the downtown area.

The total journey lasts about 80 mins. You'll need to transfer from a shorter train to a longer train at Guanglan Road metro station.

See colour green in below map:
Metro Line 2 (green) from Pudong Airport to Hongqiao Train Station
If you don't like metro, you can take airport bus line 1. This bus can also take you to Hongqiao train station from Pudong airport within 80 mins.