Sit on the Right side of the plane for the best views on flights from Shanghai to London. The right side wins overall because the Shanghai departure offers genuinely dramatic urban geography with the Huangpu River and dense city fabric, and across the flight path the right side also captures the Caspian Sea, parts of the Caucasus range, and the Black Sea region as the route tracks across Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The Gatwick arrival view on the left is good but relatively modest English countryside.

During takeoff from Hongqiao International (SHA), sit on the Right side for the best views. Hongqiao typically departs westward on runway 18R/36L or uses the 18/36 orientation, but for routes heading northwest toward Europe, aircraft often climb out heading west then turn north. A right-side seat gives views over central Shanghai's Huangpu River bends, the dense urban grid of Puxi, and the elevated Yan'an Expressway corridor before the city gives way to the flat Yangtze Delta farmland. Notable sights include: Huangpu River S-bends through Puxi, Suzhou Creek confluence, dense Jing'an and Changning district rooftops, flat patchwork Yangtze Delta agricultural plain.

When landing at Gatwick (LGW), sit on the Left side for the best views. Gatwick's main runway 08L/26R means arrivals from the east typically approach from the southeast on a heading of roughly 260-270 degrees. A left-side seat on this approach gives a clear view over the North Downs, the Surrey Hills, and the M23 corridor before touchdown, while the right side faces mostly south toward flat Weald farmland. Notable sights include: North Downs chalk ridge, Surrey Hills AONB woodland, M23 motorway corridor, Crawley town grid directly below on short final.

The flight from Hongqiao International (SHA) to Gatwick (LGW) takes Approximately 11 to 12 hours.

The route tracks northwest over eastern China, crossing the Gobi Desert and Mongolian steppe, then over Siberian taiga and the Ural Mountains, before descending over the North European Plain through Poland and Germany. Notable features include the Gobi Desert's vast brown terrain, the Ob and Yenisei river systems visible as wide braided channels across the Siberian plain, the Ural Mountains as a low but distinct north-south ridge marking the Europe-Asia boundary, and the Baltic coast near the Polish-German border.