Saturday, December 01, 2012

Shanghai Public Transport

Probably the best Metro in the world in Shanghai.  Extensive, very cheap, clean, safe and very frequent trains - every 2 or 3 minutes.
Have to admit feeling a bit daunted but after a few days of wild taxi rides and sitting in traffic jams, bit the bullet and googled the Shanghai Metro, found a webpage that explained in English the 1 day and 3 day passes but for longer trips the Shanghai Public Transportation Card is recommended as it works on all public transport and taxis. 
Found an information desk at LongYang station (Line 2), showed the girl there the iPad with the webpage photos of the SPTC and she barked LINE 7!  
Found another information desk at Line 7 and again showed the iPad with webpage open.  Too easy, paid 20Y each and charged up the cards with a couple of 100Y and we were good to go.  
Also downloaded a Shanghai Metro app to the iPad which was invaluable.  The printed metro maps at stations are very small and hard to read.  The app was clear and easy to use and tremendous with trip planning.
The Metro stations all have place names in English and once inside the trains station names are displayed and announced in Mandarin & English.
Awesome that one can use these cards in Taxis as well - Seamless!

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