It runs from Fujin Road in the north, via Shanghai Railway Station to Xinzhuang in the south.

Due to the large number of important locations served, this line is extremely busy, with a daily ridership of over 1,000,000 passengers.

[21] In the summer of 2006 after poor cooling affected 16 DC01 trains on Line 1 in the summer, high temperatures inside the carriages had long been a problem, 96 ice cubes have been put into a one-meter-high waste container to alleviate the high temperature of the 16 DC trains on Line 1.

In order to make up for the defects in the refrigeration power and design of the 16 DC trains, emergency measures must be taken whenever the temperature reaches 33 °C (91 °F) or more.

[23] The line was initially operated by trains built by the German Shanghai Metro Group which included Adtranz (now Bombardier) and Siemens together with AEG Westinghouse and Düwag.