Shanghai has an extensive public transportation system, largely
based on buses, and a rapidly expanding metro system. For a city of
Shanghai's size, road traffic is still fairly smooth and convenient
but getting more congested as the number of cars increases
rapidly.
Shanghai has the world's most extensive bus system with nearly
one thousand bus lines.[5] The Shanghai Metro (subway and elevated
light rail) has five lines (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) at present.
According to the development schedule of the municipal government,
by the year 2010, another 8 lines will be built in Shanghai. Bus
and metro fares run from ¥1 to ¥4 depending on distance (or between
12 to 50 US cents).
Taxis in Shanghai are plentiful and market competition has
driven taxi fare down to affordable prices for the average resident
(¥11 (¥14 after 11pm) or a little over one US dollar for 3 km).
Before the 1990s, bicycling was the most ubiquitous form of
transportation in Shanghai, but the city has since banned bicycles
on many of the city's main roads to ease congestion. However, many
streets have bicycle lanes and intersections are monitored by
"Traffic Assistants" who help provide for safe crossing. Further,
most motorists in China were raised riding bikes and so are fairly
careful of them. Further, the city government has pledged to add
180 km of cycling lanes over the next few years. With rising
disposable incomes, private car ownership in Shanghai has also been
rapidly increasing in recent years. The number of cars is limited,
however, by the number of available number plates available at
public auction.
In cooperation with the Shanghai municipality and the Shanghai
Maglev Transportation Development Co. (SMT), German Transrapid
constructed the first commercial Maglev railway in the world in
2002, from Shanghai's Longyang Road subway station in Pudong to
Pudong International Airport. Commercial operation started in 2003.
The 30 km trip takes 7 minutes and 21 seconds and reaches a maximum
speed of 431 km/h (267.8 miles per hour).
Two railways intersect in Shanghai: Jinghu Railway
(Beijing-Shanghai) Railway passing through Nanjing, and
Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway (沪杭线 Hu Hang Line). Shanghai has two main
railway stations, Shanghai Railway Station and Shanghai South
Railway Station. A Maglev train route to Hangzhou
(Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev Train) might begin construction in 2006
and is planned to be finished in 2008. A high-speed railroad to
Beijing is also in the works.
More than six national expressways (prefixed with "G") from
Beijing and from the region around Shanghai connect to the city.
Shanghai itself has six toll-free elevated expressways (skyways) in
the urban core and 18 municipal expressways (prefixed with "A").
There are ambitious plans to build expressways connecting
Shanghai's Chongming Island with the urban core.
Within Shanghai itself, there are elevated roads, which appear
expressway-like in road conditions (direction-separated lanes).
Tunnels and bridges are used to link Puxi to Pudong.
Shanghai has two airports: Hongqiao International and Pudong
International, the later of which has the third highest traffic in
China, following Beijing Capital International Airport and Hong
Kong International Airport. Pudong International handles more
international traffic than Beijing Capital however, with over 17.15
million international passengers handled in 2006 compared to the
latter's 12.6 million passengers.
As of December 2005, Shanghai's port, including the newly opened
Yangshan deep water port (洋山深水港), is the largest in the world. The
Donghai Bridge with a total length 32.5 km, is the longest
cross-sea bridge in the world[7]. It links Shanghai on the mainland
to the Yangshan islands. (wikipedia.org)