1. Shanghai Metro
Shanghai is the third city in China to build a subway system, but Shanghai will be the first city of China that owns over 200 km (about 124 miles) metro lines by the end of this year. The government has very a very aggressive plan that by 2010 (when EXPO is held in Shanghai) over 400 km metro lines will be in use, the number will reach 500 km at year 2012.
The Shanghai Metro is made up of both subway and the elevated light railways. It has been the main transportation tool for the citizens of Shanghai which makes transportation between home and work much more convenient for thousands of inhabitants of Shanghai. According to some survey, the transit system serves the city of Shanghai by transporting around 1.8 million passengers each day. And comparatively speaking, to take the subway is a better choice to get around Shanghai. Because the subway system covers the main places in Shanghai and it is a quick way to reach places where you want to go, with the advantage of paying much less than for a taxi ride.
Up till now, the Shanghai Metro operates five lines and has four more lines under construction. Here’s a map of Shanghai Metro:
Transportation - Shanghai Metro
More Specific Information of Five Lines
Line 1 is the first metro line in Shanghai which was opened in 1995. It runs from Gongfu Xincun in the north, via Shanghai Railway Station to Xinzhuang in the south. Among the five lines, Line 1 is the busiest line and always has very big passenger traffic. Because the line covers many famous places and important points in Shanghai. The symbol color of this line is red.
Line 2 forms the west-east axis of the Shanghai metro network, intersecting with the north-south axis Line 1 at People's Square. Line 2 runs from Songhong Road in the west to Zhangjiang in the east, passing under the Huangpu River and the Lujiazui financial district in Pudong. The symbol color of this line is green.
Line 3 is an elevated light train. It used to be called as the Pearl Line. It runs from North Jiangyang Road in the north to Shanghai South Railway Station in the southwest of the city, where it meets Line 1. This line shares the part between Baoshan Road and Hongqiao Road with the newly built Line 4. Within this area are also the stations Shanghai South Railway Station and Zhongshan Park, where you can interchange Line 1 and Line 2 respectively. The symbol color of this line is yellow.
Line 4 is called Circle Line; it forms a circle metro through the city, sharing the part from Baoshan Road to Hongqiao Road with the current Line 3. The circle follows the inner-ring way for most of the route, which causes the ring to extend to Pudong across the Huangpu River. The symbol color of this line is purple.
Line 5 is the second youngest metro line in Shanghai which was opened in 2003. and it is also the only metro line that is only connected to one other line.
This line connects the terminal station of Line 1, Xinzhuang with the Minhang Development Zone at the other end of Line 5. Here you can interchange Line 1 and the symbol color of this line is purple.
Major Stations along the Lines
Line 1
The most important stations on this line are:
1.Shanghai Railway Station: It connects the metro with the main railway station in the city, allowing easy transport to and from other provinces. You can interchange Line 3 and Line 4 here.
2.People's Square: It is a very important business and shopping area in Shanghai, and also they are many tourist attractions around. You can interchange Line 2 at this stop.
3.Xujiahui: It is one of the central business districts in Shanghai.
4.Shanghai Indoor Stadium: It is named after the sports stadium of the same name nearby.You can interchange Line 4 and transfer to Line 3 at this stop.
5.Shanghai South Railway Station: It connects the metro to the second railway station in Shanghai. You can interchange Line 3 at this stop.
6.Xinzhuang: The south terminal station of Line 1.You can interchange Line 5 at this stop.
Line 2
The important stations are:
1.Zhongshan Park: It is located in the center of Changning district. You can interchange Line 3 and Line 4 here.
2.Jing’an Temple: A famous tourism attraction, located on west Nanjing Road, Jing’an district.
3.People’s Square: You can interchange Line 1 here.
4.Lujiazui: An international trade and finance center in Shanghai, located in Pudong.
5.Century Avenue: A tourism attraction located in Lujiazui area.
6.Longyang Road: You can take the Maglev Train here.
Line 3
1.Shanghai South Railway Station: You can interchange Line 1 here.
2.Zhongshan Park: You can interchange Line 2 here.
3.Hongkou Football Stadium: A multi-function, multi-purpose stadium mainly for football games.
Line 4
1.Zhongshan Park: You can interchange Line 3 and Line 2 here.
2.Shanghai Indoor Stadium: You can interchange Line 1 at this stop.
A Table May Be Helpful for Interchange
How to Take the Subway
There are two ways you can choose, buying a ticket at the ticket window or using a transit card. The first way is very simple; tell your destination to the conductor and after pay the money you’ll get a ticket. When entering the station, put the ticket onto the inductor then you can enter, and remember to keep you ticket until you go out of the station. The second way is much more convenient which free you from having to stand in line to buy the ticket. It is used in the same way when entering the station, the only difference is that you can keep your transit card even after you get out of the station and continue to use it by topping up your transit card.
Usually there are two kinds of transit cards: Ordinary ticket card and souvenir ticket card.
The former one is thirty RMB and the latter one costs 20 RMB. After topping up the cards, you can use it in subway, buses, taxies etc. If you won’t use the transit card any more, you can return it to designated stations, but the souvenir transit card cannot return but left as a souvenir.
Shanghai Metro Timetable (From Line 1 to Line 5)
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4
Line 5
With the increasing popularity of Chinese language and great development of China’s economy, more and more foreigners come to China for business, trade, education, travel, etc. And Shanghai, as the international metropolis in China, is the principal city which lots of foreigners preferred because of its prosperity and glory. Then where to live in Shanghai seems to be the topic of common concern.
According to some statistics, there are over 10,000 foreigners studying or working in Shanghai. It’s quite a quotidian thing to meet foreigners everywhere in the downtown of Shanghai. People have already accustomed to live in such a metropolis with multi-culture and people of different nationalities. Then where do foreigners usually live and which places are good choices for settlers or short-dwellers in Shanghai?
Here are some places where foreigners prefer to live: Xuhui, Changning, Jin’an, and Putuo districts, etc. Because all these are very glorious and busy places with a lot of famed stores and busy streets locate there. For example, Xujiahui in Xuhui district, it is one of the central business areas in Shanghai. And besides its bustling business, there are also many beautiful and classical houses there which were built in the early years of last century. The Tianshan road and Gubei area in Changning district and Cangyang road in Putuo district are also good choices. A lot of foreigners have settled there and many of them have accustomed to being neighbors with local people.
Recently a lot of foreigners choose to live in Pudong . The main reason is they work for big corporations located in Waigaoqiao or Jinqiao developing area. Very far away from downtown as it is, there are also supermarkets, restaurants, bars, starbucks coffee, etc, all the modern “civilized” life style requires. Plus it’s less crowed and polluted.
So if you want to rent an apartment or plan to have a permanent residence in Shanghai, you can choose such places for the reason of convenience, prosperity and safety. Of course the price may be a lit bit high.
Actually about renting, here are also some nice places: Yangpu, Hongkou, Luwan, Huangpu etc. All these districts are the downtown lots of the city. And in Shanghai, the apartments are usually divided into three types: Newly built apartments, old apartments and service apartments. Well, the rent of the newly built apartments is usually expensive. Besides the convenience and safety, the high price of houses in Shanghai is also one of the reasons. Old apartments are much cheaper; 2000RMB is enough to rent one. And the services apartment which is fully equipped, e.g. satellite TV, usually takes 6000RMB a month. Of course, some old service apartment will be cheaper.
Usually it is the cheap rent, convenient transportation and especially the dense local culture that will attract foreigners to choose to live in. And apart from that, I know that lots of foreigners enjoy night life under the influences of culture and custom. It is said that Pudong is not a good choice to live if a person like night life, because you will be immersed in the quietness and dreariness of the dark night. So anyone wants to have night life might as well not take Pudond as a choice.
Besides all I mentioned above, there are also some links may be helpful:
http://shanghai.asiaxpat.com/
http://www.smartshanghai.com/
http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/
http://www.newportchina.com/xhdistrict.php
On these websites, there is much information about living in Shanghai, so it’s also a good choice to have a visit to such places before making a choice.
Hope all these will be helpful, and all of you enjoy the life in Shanghai.
2. Shanghai Bus
Introduction
Although many people would rather take taxis and metro as their transportation tools because of the convenience and swiftness, most of people in Shanghai still take buses as their first transportation choice in their daily life because of its high cost-efficiency. Actually it's a very good choice because most of buses in Shanghai are new, clean, air-conditioned, environment friendly - their exhaust emissions meet Euro III standard. You can also see express lanes for buses in the downtown which are built to guarantee the transportation speed, especially during peak hour.
Altogether there are more than 1,000 formal bus lines operated by 20 companies among which Dazhong, Bashi, Qiangsheng and Guanzhong are the 4 biggest ones.
Bus Lines
Buses in Shanghai are usually named in Chinese characters or numbers, and can be generally classified into the following categories:
1. Line numbers under 200---Downtown Conventional Lines: In these buses, lines under 30 are trolleybuses with the exception of those starting with 0 and Line 18, 21. There are some air-conditioned buses in trolley lines.
2. Line numbers between 200 and 299 ---Rush Hour Lines: These buses, not including those numbers are used for conventional buses, mostly run during the rush hours.
3. Line numbers between 300 and 399--- Night Buses
4. Line numbers between 400 and 499--- Cross-River Lines
5. Line numbers between 500 and 599
6. Line numbers between 800 and 899
7. Line numbers between 900 and 999 --- Special Lines
8. Line numbers between 700 and 799--- Suburban Conventional lines
9. Line numbers between 600 and 699---Pudong New District Special Lines
10. Suburban Lines--- usually named by Chinese characters combined by abbreviation of the first and terminal stations' names
Ticket Fare
Different bus lines have different ticket fares:
Categories 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 8 charge 1 Yuan per person for distance within 13 kilometers, and over 13 kilometers charges at 1.5 Yuan. The air-conditioned buses charge 2 Yuan per person.
Categories 4 and 6 charge the multi-level price with a minimum of 1 Yuan. Air-conditioned buses charge a minimum of 2 Yuan.
Category 9 buses charge the multi-level price according to the distance traveled with a minimum charge of 1 Yuan for both ordinary and air-conditioned buses.
When going out, you’d better take some changes with you. Because some bus lines are non-served and have no conductors. When getting on the bus, you are required to put the coins into the slot at the entrance to the bus. Besides that, you can also take a Public Transportation Card; it’s more convenient to take a card than taking some coins.
How to Read the Stop Sign
Although the bus system and related services are improving, there are still a lot of stops with signs but not bus shelters in Shanghai for people to wait buses. Those who are not familiar with Chinese character may be confused about the sign. The following picture will give you the basic information:
Pudong Airport Shuttle Bus
Line 1: From Pudong airport to Hongqiao airport.
Time: 7:00am---11:00pm
The buses leave Pudong every 10 minutes and the one-way ticket fare is 30 yuan (US$3.74). The service from Hongqiao to Pudong operates from 6am to 9pm.
Line 2: From Pudong airport to the Jing'an Temple.
Time: 7:20am---11:00pm
Usually buses leave every 10minuteis at rush hours and sometimes may be longer. The one-way trip ticket costs 19 yuan. The first bus from the City Air Terminal to Pudong leaves at 6am and the last at 9:30pm.
Line 3: From Pudong airport to the Galaxy Hotel
Time:7:00am---11:00pm
The buses stop at Xujiahui, Dapuqiao , and Longyang Road Station on Metro Line 2, which is the maglev train station. The maximum one-way fare is 20 yuan and buses run every 15 to 20 minutes. The first bus from the Galaxy Hotel leaves at from 5:30am and the last at 8pm.
Line 4: From Pudong International Airport to the Hongkou Football Stadium
Time:7:20am---11:00pm
The buses will stop at Deping Road in Pudong, and Wujiaochang and Da Baishu in Puxi. A one-way ticket for the entire route costs 18 yuan, and the service interval is 15 minutes. Buses leave Hongkou from 5:40am to 9pm.
Line 5: From Pudong airport to Shanghai Railway Station.
Time: 7:20am---11:00pm
These buses stop at People's Square, the Oriental Hospital and Luoshan Road. Maximum fare is 18 yuan, and there is a service every 15 minutes. The service from Shanghai Railway Station begins at 5:30am and ends at 9pm.
Line 6: From Pudong airport to Zhongshan Park.
Time: 7:35am---11:00pm
This line stops at the Zhangjiang High-tech Park, Longyang Road and Dongfang Road in Pudong, and Laoximen and Huashan Road. A one-way trip costs 20 yuan. Buses from Pudong run every 20 to 30 minutes. The first bus leaves the park for Pudong at 6am and the last at 8pm.
Line 7: From Pudong airport to Shanghai South Railway Station.
Time: 7:50am---11:00pm
The whole one-way journey costs 20 yuan. Buses from Dongfang Road run from 6:50am to 9:30pm, with an interval of 30 minutes.
Line 8: This line has three routes.
First one: 6:00am---4:00pm
This line the buses run between Pudong airport and Lingang New City near the Yangshan Deep-Water Port. Buses from the airport run every two hours the service from Lingang operates from 6am to 4pm.It costs 16 Yuan to travel the whole line one way.
Second one: 8:30am---7:30pm
This line is between Nanhui Dongmen and Pudong airport. The whole trip costs 6 yuan. Buses from Nanhui run every 30 to 60 minutes between 6:30am and 6:35pm.
Third one: 7:05am---7:50am
This line has six stops between Pudong airport and Shiwan Town. The one-way trip costs 4 yuan, and only has two services in the morning. Buses leave Pudong airport at 7:05am and 7:50am and Shiwan Town at 7:25am and 8:20am.
Shanghai Tourist Bus Lines
There are ten tourist bus lines in Shanghai. The buses all start from Shanghai Stadium and almost cover all the tourist attractions in Shanghai, even some attractions of neighboring cities.
Followed is the detailed information of each line:
Line 1
Route A: Shanghai Stadium --- Caohejing --- Guilin Park --Jing'an Xincheng --- Qibao --- Jiuting --- Zhuanqiao --- Fangta Park ---Zuibaichi Garden --- Songjiang East Bus Station
Time: 7:45-17:30
Frequency: every 35 minutes
Price: 30 RMB (return journey with ticket fee for Fangta Park and Zuibaichi Garden)
Route B: Shanghai Stadium --- Caohejing --- Guilin Park ---Qibao --- Jiuting --- Zhuanqiao --- Sheshan National Holiday Resort --- Sheshan Jinjiang Rafting World (September to August) --- Sheshan National Forest Park --- Sheshan Ropeway
Time: 7:15-17:00
Frequency: every 35 minutes
Price: 81RMB (return journey with ticket fee for Sheshan National Forest Park)
Line 2
Route: Shanghai Stadium --- Dapu Road --- Shiliupu --- Beicai --- Zhoupu --- Qianqi --- Hangtou --- Shanghai Wildlife Park --- Huinan Town
Frequency: every 15 minutes
Price: 95 RMB (return journey with ticket fee for the Shanghai Wildlife Park)
Line 3
Route: Shanghai Stadium --- People's Square --- Lujiazui Greenbelt --- Oriental Pearl TV Tower --- Binjiang Avenue --- Jinmao Building --- Shanghai Securities Mansion --- Wuniu City --- Celebrity Garden Hotel --- Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park --- Sunqiao Modern Agricultural Park --- Huaxia Cultural Park --- Huaxia Tourist City --- Huaxia Beach Tourist Area
Time: 7:00-17:30
Frequency: every half an hour
Price:
52RMB (one-way ticket and with the ticker fee for Shanghai Oriental TV Tower or JinMao Building)
32 RMB (Return journey with the ticket fee for Sunqiao Modern Agricultural Park)
Line 4
Route: Shanghai Stadium --- Shanghai Zoo --- Shanghai Horsemanship Athletic Field --- Qushui Garden --- Zhujiajiao --- Water Sports Center --- Baoguo Temple --- Fork Club --- Grand View Garden
Time: 7:30-15:00
Frequency: every 30 minutes
Price:
39RMB (one-way ticket and the ticket fee for Shanghai Wildlife Park)
70(return journey with ticket fee for Grand View Garden)
33RMB (one-way ticket with the ticket fee for Zhujiajiao)
Line 5
Route: Shanghai Stadium --- People's Square --- Jiangwan Town --- Wusong Port --- Xiayuan Hotel --- Baoyang Port --- Chongming Xuegong (Confucian Temple) --- Chongming Dongping National Forest Park
Time: 6:30-17:00
Frequency: every 15 minutes
Price: 76RMB (return journey with steamer ticket and ticket fee to the Chongming Dongping National Forest Park)
Line 6
Route A: Shanghai Stadium --- Changfeng Park --- Zhenru Town --- Shanghai West Railway Station --- Guyi Garden --- Huilongtan Pool --- Confucian Temple (Fahua Tower) --- Qiuxia Garden (Jiading Hotel) --- Shanghai Automobile Activities Centre
Time: 6:30-17:00
Frequency: every 35 minutes
Price:
36RMB (return journey with the ticket fee for Guyi Garden)
80RMB(one-way ticket and a package of tickets for Underwater World)
Route B: Shanghai Stadium --- Changfeng Park --- Shanghai Jingdezhen Ceramics Art Center --- Shanghai Textile & Garment Market --- Dreamland Amusement Park --- Meilihua Holiday Resort --- Anting (Dayang Ocean World) --- Dazhong Huating Hotel
Time: 6:30-17:20
Frequency: every 30 minutes
Line 7
Route: Shanghai Stadium --- Longhua Martyrs' Cemetery --- The Former Residence of Song Qingling --- Shanghai Library --- Shanghai Museum --- The Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China --- Zhou Gongguan --- The Former Residence of Sun Yat-sen --- Shanghai Stadium
Operating Time: 6:30 - 18:00
Frequency: every 30 minutes
Line 8
Route: Shanghai Stadium --- People's Square --- The Bund --- Heping Park --- Yangpu Park --- Gongqing Forest Park --- Shanghai Stadium
Operating Time: 6:30 - 19:00
Frequency: every 30 minutes
Price: 17RMB (return journey)
Line 9
Route: Shanghai Stadium --- Lingshan, Wuxi
Operating Time: 7:10 - 17:00
Frequency: every 60 minutes
Price:
To Wuxi Railway station – 43RMB
To Mt. Lingshan Scenic Area – 150RMB for a return journey, with admission fee to the park included.
3. Shanghai Taxi
Nowadays more and more people in Shanghai rely on taxis because of its convenience and reasonable price – so cheap compared to those of HK, Japan or US, no wonder taxis have become one of the main transportation tools for people in Shanghai. Although taxi price has come up a little bit because of world-wide gas shortage, it’s still affordable to most of consumers. At the moment there are around 45,000 taxis and 90,000 taxi drivers in Shanghai.
Dazhong ----Cyan
Qiangsheng ----Orange
Jinjiang-------White
Bashi------Green
Haibo----Sapphire blue
Blue Union---Navy blue
So it’s quite convenient for you to recognize different cars by their colors. Of all the taxi companies, Dazhong and Qiangsheng are most strongly recommended. Dazhong, the biggest taxi company, enjoys a very high reputation among all the companies. Besides, Qiangsheng is also very famous. Cars of both two companies are new and in good condition. And the services they provide are also professional.
Get a taxi
You can see taxis almost everywhere in Shanghai. Usually you can hail a taxi in every main street. And besides that, the more convenient way is to book a taxi by calls. All the major companies have their own hotlines to book cars. There is no service fee charged except Dazhong company, which charges 4 Yuan for each telephone or online reservation.
In 2005, Shanghai's taxi authorities launched an industry call center (96965), which was expected to cover all of the city's cabs in the near future. It is expected that that the call center will locate all the city's 45,000 taxis and find the nearest vacant taxi for any passenger who calls the hot line to book a cab. Service in English is also available. All booking services are also free for passengers. So you may call 96965 to book a car or call the company call center directly.
Taxi Fare
Because of the rise of petrol price, the government has made an adjustment on the taxi fare.
The old system of taxi fare
Taxi Invoice
When taking a taxi, people might as well take the invoice before get out of the taxi. Because the invoice contains some helpful information, including the company of the car and the plate number, etc. Sometimes maybe you are not satisfied with the service or you leave something on the car by chance, the invoice will be a great help.
The picture below will give more specific information:
4. Shanghai Bicycle
In developed countries, you may rarely see bicycles in the street. But it’s quite common to see bicycles in Shanghai. Some of them ride bicycles for catching buses or metro, some for shopping, and some for going to work or school, etc.
Then if you want to ride a bicycle like a native citizen in Shanghai, what should you know first?
Get a Bicycle License
Unlike riding motorized vehicles, you needn't get a license for yourself to ride a bicycle but what is similar is that you should get a license for the bicycle. Otherwise the bicycle will be regarded as illegal in China.
You need worry where to get the license. Usually when you buy the bicycle, the merchant will provide such services. You’ll be given a license plate and your bicycle will be given a steel seal which is a unique number. Through the number you can recognize your bicycle.
Check before riding
The license of the bicycle allows you to ride in the street. But every time before you set out, you’d better check whether your bicycle works well. This is required in the traffic regulation, but usually no one will stop you to check your bicycle condition. We do this only for the purpose of avoiding some unexpected situations such as flat tire and broken chain. What if your bicycle doesn’t work? Don’t worry about that. What you should do is only to walk along the road with your bicycle and look for a bicycle repair shop. It won’t take you long to find one by the roadside. And the problems such as filling the tire or replacing one part of the bicycle charges not much.
Riding and parking
The streets in Shanghai are usually divided into motorized and non-motorized. The different driveways are indicated by different signs.
Such signs or similar ones with a picture of bicycle on it indicate the way for bicycles. And on some roads bicycles are not allowed. What you should do is to follow the signs. But in some places of the city, there are still some streets are not divided in which cars, bicycles and people gather together. Then you are supposed to ride on the right side in such streets.
As for parking, you may see a lot of parking lots along the road. Some are with signs, like this one:
and some are not.
There’s often a bicycle controller and you can park your bicycle there by paying not much. Of course, don’t forget to lock your bicycle when parking.
Some Tips
When riding a bicycle, you are not allowed to carry a person. (Picture 1)
When turning right or turning left, you are required to stretching out your arms to give hints. It will let others know what you will do next and can void some unnecessary accidents. (Picture 2)
Bicycles riders should also follow the regulation of traffic lights. What’s more, when the green light is on, pedestrians have the right to go first before bicycle riders.(Picture 3)
In some places of Shanghai, there are some traffic lights designed for bicycles. As we can see from picture, bicycles riders should stop when the red light is on.(Picture 4)
If you live a lit bit far away from the metro station or you have to interchange every day, you can by a folding bicycle for you. It will bring you a lot of convenience and the bicycle is easy to carry. When interchanging, you can use it and when taking the metro, you can fold it.(Picture 5)
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