On Transport

One thing about the trip that I am rather proud of is that I was rather good at my bearings. Give me a map and I'm all good to go.

In Shanghai (and the rest of China I guess), it's important to know your "north, south, east and west" as it is the convention to use that for giving directions. It's like, instead of saying "AYE from Tuas towards Changi Airport", you say "Eastwards on AYE" et cetera.

It is often hard to tell where a place in Shanghai is by looking at the address alone. For instance, if the address says 33 栖山路, you are going to have a hard time finding the place if you walk from one end of the road to the other, because chances are the road is more than 5km long. Hence, you need to pinpoint the location by looking at where the nearest road junction is. So instead of 33 栖山路, people usually call the place "栖山路,巨野路".

I could hardly get used to fact that the Chinese drive on the right side. And often I got a rude shock crossing the junction and finding a car left-turning into my way! It doesn't help that the Chinese aren't the friendliest drivers around. They love to honk, have no respect for the red-light and think pedestrians don't acutally exist.

Taking a taxi over there is called "打的(di)" and being cheap and fast, it is one of the best ways to move around in Shanghai. The apparent downside is that during peak hours or along busy roads you might have to fight for the cab with those rude Shanghai aunties who can get quite cutthroat when it comes to such things.

And occasionally the taxi might break down, which happened to me once, 1km or so into the journey, so I got a free 5-minute ride because of that (the driver went down to push the car and I alighted, hopped onto the taxi behind and took this picture).

Being a bus person, the bus remains my favourite mode of transport in Shanghai. It's not as comfortable as the taxi and seats are not always available, but taking the bus is always preferable because I get to see more. They have their own "TV mobile" too. The only thing, they have no "bus stopping" bell to press so you need to literally sound off to the bus conductor/driver. They usually will ask, but often it is done in Shanghainese, their dialect which I don't understand.

Like any prosperous city, the subway network is highly developed in Shanghai. But I dread taking the train. Really, it brings out the worse in the Shanghainese. I used to bitch about ugly Singaporean commuters but I now realise they are nothing compared to the Shanghainese. They swear and curse at anyone who gets in their way, they force themselves into the carriage with brute force without giving way to the alighting passengers, they congregate near the door and refuse to move in, and they don't smell good, most of the time.

The only good thing is the display screen which tells you when the next four trains are coming in minutes and seconds.


The trains have varying lengths, some with more carriages than the others. You need to pay attention to the announcements to make sure you are not waiting at the wrong part of the platform.

And you have all these peddlers at entrance of the tunnel to add to the chaos.

Of course, nothing beats touring on foot. This picture was taken on an overhead bridge when I was walking from 豫园 to People's Square. The whole journey took close to an hour.

And I did the zipai thing again.

And lastly, the Pudong International Airport which is quite aesthetically pleasing. I spent 11 hours here on the day of departure because my return flight was delayed. The reason? The plane broke down.