Getting Around in Shanghai

Saturday, April 17, 2010
Shanghai has grown into an uber-city, and there is too much to comprehend. There is a mix of old overlayed by new. In may cases old obliterated by new. New York comes to mind. Our hosts spend a lot of time in the French Concession neighborhood which is older, European influenced, and busy with shops, clubs and restaurants.

Street

Cab fairs are cheep and are the best way to get around. No English is spoken, but pointing at maps, or blackberry emails with instructions in Chinese seems to work. One night the return home is entertaining in the extreme, with our driver proving to be a western jazz nut, listening to his jazz radio station and playing ''air saxophone” to Stan Getz.

Lunch

Traffic is universally insane, but we only saw one accident. If everyone is insane together, it seems to work.

Transport

Leaving the city for the airport, we travel first on congested surface streets, then on the new overhead freeway system that wasn't there a couple of years ago, and finally we transfer to the Maglev train for the last 10 minutes at 260 mph. It is a short prototype system to test the technology, and it is well traveled with tour groups as well as airport passengers.

Maglev Station