Orient Orientation: An underground triumph

I have been in Shanghai for 18 days now, and have either walked everywhere or taken a taxi. As a veteran of the Washington, D.C. Metro, I should have been eager to check out the one in Shanghai to see how it compares. I was more curious than “eager,” but I did take my first ride on the Shanghai Metro this morning.

Metro sign in Shanghai.
(It rained all day today.)

It’s really quite simple, once you know what line you need to take (there are 11), your destination station (there are 267 stations), how to get a ticket (like D.C., the Shanghai Metro has self-service machines . . . yes, there is an option for English), and which exit to use when you get to your destination station (most stations have four or more different exits). That may sound rather tongue-in-cheek, but it really is simple if you know where you’re going. Plus, the Shanghai Metro website walks new passengers through the process . . . in English, with pictures.

The signs outside each station are in Chinese and English, with clear indications of what line(s) is serviced there and what exit it is. Here, I was going into the 2^nd exit for the East Nanjing Road Station to get on Line 2.

East Nanjing Road Station is serviced by Lines 2 and 10.

Unlike the D.C. Metro, when you purchase a ticket for the Shanghai Metro, you purchase it for your specific destination—that determines the amount you have to pay. I was going to a station four stops away, and the cost was 4RMB (about $0.64), one-way. Also, instead of the paper tickets visitors can get from the D.C. Metro machines, you get a plastic fare card that you wave in front of a turnstile sensor to get to the train platforms and then feed in to the turnstile in order to exit.

My first single journey Shanghai Metro card.

The ride is pretty much the same as in D.C.: jockeying to get a good seat or standing place; annoying chimes telling you the train doors are closing; a conductor announcing each stop in varying levels of garbled audio (thank goodness for the line maps in each car); oblivious passengers standing in front of the train doors when you need to get off the train; and so forth. The train platforms and stations, while more like the cramped platforms in the New York subway than the cavernous platforms in D.C., were well lit and very clean. Most of the signs are in Chinese and English, so it really is easy.

Turnstiles to get to the train platforms.

Good signage.

Just like D.C.!

More good signage directing passengers to the various
station exits.

Oh, so where did I go on my first Metro trip? To the Bureau of Exit-Entry Administration Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, of course! No, this is not a typical tourist destination; it is more like a DMV for those wishing to exit or enter China (passports, visas, travel permits, etc.), and for affairs related to foreigners’ residence in China (among other things related to public security).

With the assistance of a fantastic representative from Fragomen Del Rey law firm (the firm assisting with all of my immigration paperwork), I submitted my residence permit application and obtained a temporary travel permit (the Bureau needs your passport for the permit application, so this permit allows you to travel within mainland China until your application has been processed), all in about 20 minutes! It was amazing. Fragomen had already filled out the application and gathered the required documents, so all I had to do was provide my passport and a passport-sized photo, sit for a picture (like a the one they took at the physical exam), and sign the application. That’s it.

The Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

Doesn't it look like the DMV?

I'm next!

The Public Security Bureau is conveniently located a few blocks away from the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Unfortunately, the museum is closed on Mondays. Good thing I checked out its website before leaving this morning.

So instead of having an educational afternoon filling my head with all things science, I returned to the Metro station. The station also happens to be home to the largest market of fake goods in Shanghai, an underground mall of knock-off purses, shoes, watches, clothes, DVDs, you name it. I am not a shopper, but since I was there, I walked through one of the labyrinthine arrangements of stores just to say I’d done it. I’ve never been comfortable in markets where the storeowners call out to you or follow you trying to get you to buy whatever they’re selling, so this was not the place for me. It was interesting to see, but not my cup of tea, shall we say? I would have taken some pictures, but if you stop anywhere for too long, the vendors latch on and it’s hard to get away. Been there, done that, did not get a (fake Ralph Lauren) T-shirt.

I did get a few more pictures of the Metro though: