.:[ Bus, Subway & Taxi ]:.

Description:
In fact, the means of transport in Shanghai are quite the same as the ones in other big cities in the world: Bus, Subway, Metro, Taxis (cars as well as motorcycles). Nevertheless, they are unique. I mean where else will you be able to see brand new flat screens in overaged buses? Even in the every subway station you can see a countless number of big screens either with entertainment movies, with the news in China or even with funny cartoons (a famous one is Pobaby).

If you are taking the bus, I recommand to sit; if you cannot (too bad :-)), then you will have to have a good standing position, keep stuck to the bars because the drivers are real F1 drivers: they are driving pretty fast and braking even more harder. They don't care about the passengers comfort. The most woundrous thing is that vehicles seem to be build without dampers or maybe they don't repair them because every time there is a whole in the street, you really feel it (the car and the bus go up and down and up and down...^^).

In the subway, it's really amazing to see how clean it is compared to the street: you won't see someone throwing something away on the floor and there are always people in charge of the cleaning who do their jobs. The subway is the most used mean of transportation in Shanghai therefore it is sometimes really chaotic within the busy hours because there are so many people taking the subway that they have to hire persons to filter passengers from one arrival to the other (I mean, there is so many people that one wagon hasn't enough room for everybody). I will try to take a picture later to show you how difficult it is when the subway is overcrowded. One last thing, I'm sorry to say that but I think Chinese people are sometimes foolish: It is better first to let people go out before going inside! Chinese people don't do that, they prefer do the melee like rugby players do... I think I will never understand that (are they affraid to miss their train? dunno...).

Just few words about the taxis (yeah I know I write too much comments but after I promiss you can have a look to the pictures ^^). The taxis can be of 5 differents colors: yellow, green, blue, red and white. What I know is that a Chinese woman told me that the blue ones were good drivers... The taxi is the most used mean of transport during the night (all the subway stations close at about 11:00 pm). During the day, the price starts at 11 RMB (1€ ≈ 10 RMB) and 2,1 RMB per kms after the third kilometer. At night, it starts at 14 RMB and 2,7 RMB per kms after the third one. The only thing to know is that taxi drivers don't speak a word of English so don't get angry they won't understand you: just show them the paper with the destination where you want to go or do like me: learn Chinese! Now, you can enjoy the few pictures!

More pictures coming...