Distance from Cape Town to Shanghai
The great-circle distance between Cape Town, South Africa and Shanghai, China is 12,977 km (8,063 mi · 7,007 nmi) — the shortest possible route over the Earth's surface, the path aircraft approximately follow.
The numbers
- Great-circle distance
- 12,977 km · 8,063 mi · 7,007 nmi
- Initial bearing Cape Town → Shanghai
- 69° (ENE)
- Initial bearing Shanghai → Cape Town
- 245° (WSW)
- Nonstop flight (rough estimate)
- ≈ 15 h 55 min
- Time zones
- Cape Town UTC+02:00 · Shanghai UTC+08:00 (+6 h)
- Sunrise gap today
- 498 min — the sun rises later in Cape Town
Flight time is a cruise-speed approximation (no routing/wind); driving distance depends on roads and is typically 20–40% longer than great-circle.
The two cities
- Cape Town
- -33.9258, 18.4232
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 05:34 UTC / 16:12 UTC
- Shanghai
- 31.2222, 121.4581
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 21:16 UTC / 10:46 UTC
Open in the distance calculator Find the halfway point
Distances here are straight-line (great-circle). Road routes typically run 1.2–1.4× longer — here's why, with the visual.