Obama in China: Long gone, and still headlinin'
Protest in Guangzhou: Why would you burn garbage?
Interview: Coco Zhao, from jazz to M. Butterfly
Barbie Spa: For the cosmopolitan plastic beauty in you
Week Around the Ists
Line 1:
The 2nd northern extension: Bao'an Highway, Youyi Road, Fujin Road.
People's Square now a 3-way interchange (photo from the Line 1 platform):
Line 4:
The entire new loop line:
A few new stations, including an interchange with Line 8:
Line 6:
The route map at Century Avenue.
Inside a Line 6 car (oops, it still says "Shiji Avenue"...)
Line 8:
People's Square platform sign.
South of the Huangxing Road station: Hongkou Stadium, People's Square, south Pudong.
Line 9:
Platform at Jiuting Station.
Guilin Rd Station map.
Other:
Updated ticket price table for Caoxi Rd; and this is only for Line 3!
Ticket-vending machine with new lines:
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Until they fix the stupid line 1/line 2 interchange at People's Square I will continue to curse the Shanghai subway, somehow being built some 25 years after Hong Kong's, and yet only 1/10 as useful.
We'll see with the new lines, but I ain't holding my breath.
Hohoho, does Santa have a Christmas present for you. Check out this album of pictures of the new People's Square interchange hall:
http://www.yupoo.com/albums/view?id=ff80808116d0913c0116d49c67fb61e3
It's got a set of stairs with *six* escalators flanking it, three up on one side and three down on the other. Plus the fact that it's looking pretty snazzy.
And Shanghai-HK is not really a fair comparison, for many reasons. Though you're not the only person to make it.
Why not? More than a few Shanghaiinese make the comparison.
I have a question about the subway system which Micah or some of the other metro-heads may be able to answer:
Why, on some of the new maps inside stations and trains, is the transfer between line 3/4 and line 1 at Shanghai Railway station no longer shown? I know its a good 7-8 minute walk through a very long passage to make the transfer, but I can't understand why they would change the maps.
I agree about the HK subway though, I dont see why Shanghai's system should not be a match for it - Shanghai's was planned and built much more recently and able to take advantage of advances in design and technology.
Take for example the upcoming new changeover at people's square - why couldn't they have made a shorter interchange in the first place? I can't think of any reason other than bad planning.
Cam: I think there are two sides to the Shanghai Railway Station argument. One side wants to build a passage to connect Line 1 with Lines 3/4 and make the station a true interchange. The other side wants to save the trouble by just separating the two stops and call them "Shanghai Railway Station - South Square" and "Shanghai Railway Station - North Square". Old maps used to have the two stops together until people started pointing out that you couldn't actually change lines at the Railway Station without exiting the platform and buying a ticket again. The new maps are a compromise to the above argument: one station name, two station dots on the map.
OK, let's see.
Hong Kong was run as a mercantilist heaven by super-efficient British bureaucrats for more than 80 years by the time its first metro line was inaugurated in 1979. These were the same bureaucrats who had been riding the London Underground since 1863.
At about the time that Hong Kong opened its first line, China (PRC) was emerging from traumatic social/political upheaval on a national scale, finally reengaging with the West for the first time since 1949. Chinese nationals still have an extremely hard time traveling abroad for financial and diplomatic reasons, much less absorbing foreign ideas and applying them creatively back home. Heck, the average Shanghai metro driver makes RMB 2-4k per month. How many of them do you think have been to Hong Kong? Not to speak of London, New York, etc.
So yes, you're absolutely right that it was bad planning, but really whaddaya expect from this place.
Micha - you say there are two dots on some maps and I have noticed that, however, in many of the line 1 and line 3/4 trains the maps no longer show that there is the facility to interchange at all, it just shows Shanghai railway station and no little red or purple/yellow tag indicating that the lines cross.
The fact you need to exit the station and buy a new ticket makes sense for removing the transfer sign off the maps in some ways, but for newcomers to Shanghai, it must be very confusing.
Incidentally, little tip for metro newbies - Shanghai indoor stadium line 1 and Caoxi lu line 3 stations are just as close as line 1 and line 3/4 at Shanghai Railway station, and make for a good unoffical transfer if you dont mind negoitating a very busy road over in Xujiahui.
I think the Shanghai metro system is pretty decent considering the relative speed with which it has appeared, and it is certainly very reliable. You don't need to worry about traffic conditions or if it is raining - the metro is what it is and does exactly as it says it does, nothing more nothing less.
One thing though I am sure everyone will agree on - why on earth does it close so early? The last trains sometimes reach rush-hour levels of packedness.
Could they at least not operatate a skeleton service till say 1am, for revellers who spent their taxi fare on beer? Or, at the very least, such a service at weekends?
Cam: hmm, that interesting and I'll bring it up next time I come across a discussion of the on-train maps.
I'm 100% with you on the early closing time.
My whiner's whine: lack of express and local trains, like New York.
I realize it's impossible for Shanghai to do this but every time I ride line 2 during rush hour, the majority of the people (based on observation) get on and off at the following stops: Zhongshan Park, People's Square, Lujiazui, and Zhangjiang High-Tech Park.
You folks who complain about the Shanghai Metro should go live in LA for a while...