How to Take a Bus In Shanghai

There are many kinds of buses in Shanghai - one RMB non air-conditioned buses, two RMB air-conditioned buses, and buses charged according to the distance of your bus ride. One route may be served by both non-air conditioned and air-conditioned buses with different ticket prices.

Air-condtioned Shanghai Buss are marked with the Chinese characters"空调". Shanghai Bus lines with two or digit numbers starting with the "1" or "7" usually have no ticeket salespersons. Passengers are expected to feed exact change into a money slot at the front by the driver.

Bus lines with the digit nunber of "2" usually run during the peak hours in the morning while the bus lines with the number of "3" operate in the evening.

Unnumbered Daqiao Xian (Bridge Line) and Suidao Xian (Tunnel Line ) link the Pudong and Puxi. In the morning you will expect huge crowds on the trip from Pudong to Puxi in the morning and from Puxi to Pudong in the evening.

The buses running in the suburbs are served by Zhuan Xian (Special Lines). These special lines are enough to take you to have sightseeing outside the city of Shanghai.

The bus stops can be very confusing, especially in the large bus hubs. The bus stops in Shanghai are usually named after the name of the streets the stops are located. But very often some bus stops with the same names are separated far from each other or bus stops of different names are located in the same place. If you are not quites sure whether you are on the right bus, you may confirm with the ticket salesperson or the bus driver.

One thing you must keep in mind is that there are many one-way streets in Shanghai, so your return bus trip may be not the same bus route from that of your departure. When you start to use Shanghai Bus service, you must make sure you make the correct bus lines and the right direction as well as your return route.