If you want to explore the East, don't think twice. Take an Iberia flight to Shanghai and discover a city that has undergone a profound transformation in just a few short years. Since 1975, the official number of inhabitants in China's most populous city has practically doubled to reach 20 million.

The people of Shanghai have become an urban tribe with a unique language, customs, architecture, cuisine and vitality that you will not find anywhere else in China. The city's history as a meeting point between foreign traders and Chinese immigrants has forged a distinct culture. But over the years, it has become a hybrid in which eastern and western concepts intermingle. To foreigners' eyes, Shanghai is part of China, but the Chinese see it as a different country.

The old buildings from the early 20th century have given way to some of the world's most avant-garde skyscrapers, including the 101-storey Shanghai World Financial Center, the tallest building in China.

Another outstanding skyscraper is the Shanghai Television Tower. Best known as the 'Oriental Pearl', this city icon is the most photographed building in Shanghai. The various observation desks offer magnificent views.

But Shanghai has also done more than any other city in China to preserve its historical architecture. The bulldozers that cleared space for these voluptuous buildings left hundreds of mansions and banks from the pre-communist era unscathed. Take a flight to Shanghai with Iberia. You won't regret it!

The time difference between China and Spain is seven hours, so if you are taking a flight to Shanghai and you want to know what time it is in China, add seven hours to the local time in Spain.

Shanghai has a humid subtropical climate, due to its location on a similar latitude to New Orleans and Cairo and also to its proximity to the Yangtze River Delta and Lake Taihu. This gives rise to clearly differentiated seasons during the course of the year.

For example, in winter, the strong wind from Siberia causes temperatures to fall. Even if the temperature is not particularly low, the humidity and wind make it feel very cold.

By contrast, in summer the temperature is quite high, which combined with the intense humidity makes its feel considerably hotter than it really is. The warmest months are July and August when the maximum temperatures range between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius. Summer storms and typhoons are frequent at this time of year, although they do not usually cause severe damage.

Iberia flies to Pudong International Airport, a major aviation hub in Asia located approximately 30 kilometres east of Shanghai, on a 40-square-kilometre site adjacent to the coastal district of Pudong. Flights to Shanghai are operated with the company's Airbus A-330/200.

Shanghai International Airport is connected to the city via the Maglev Train. This magnetic levitation train covers the 30 kilometres between the airport and the city centre in just over seven minutes, reaching a speed of 431 kilometres per hour. Metro Line 2 connects the city's two airports, Pudong and Hongqiao, and passes through the centre of Shanghai. There are also buses, while the taxi offers another option and is not very expensive.

As for Shanghai cuisine, alcohol and sugar are used to prepare most dishes. Freshwater eel, carp, crabs, shrimps and other similar seafood, plus chicken, are all marinated in different types of alcohol before they are cooked, although they are sometimes served raw as well. The official currency in China is the renminbi, which means 'people's currency'.

Check the flight offer from Madrid to Shanghai and book your plane ticket online. Iberia guarantees the best last-minute prices for our cheap flight offer from Madrid to Shanghai.

Prices shown are for flights that customers have recently searched at from Madrid to Shanghai. They are subject to change depending on seat availability, possible fare variations, charges and other supplements at the time you make the check. Prices per journey are applicable for return-flight tickets