Public Transportation
Shanghai has an extensive public transport system, largely based on metros, buses and taxis. Payment of all these public transportation tools can be made by using the Shanghai Public Transportation Card.
Shanghai's rapid transit system, Shanghai Metro, incorporates both subway and light railway lines and extends to every core urban district as well as neighbouring suburban districts. As of 2010, there are twelve metro lines (including the Shanghai Maglev Train), 273 stations and over 420 km of tracks in operation, making it the longest network in the world. On October 22, 2010, it set a record of daily ridership of 7.548 million. The fare depends on the length of travel distance and generally varies from 3 to 4 RMB.
Shanghai also has the world's most extensive bus system with nearly one thousand bus lines, operated by numerous transportation companies. Bus fare costs normally 2 RMB.
There are also plenty of Taxis in Shanghai and the taxi fare has an affordable rate: ¥12 for the first 3 km, (¥16 after 23:00), and 2.4RMB pro kilometer thereafter. Foreign language speakers can write their destinations in Chinese or simply show maps to the taxi drivers, as many of them speak only limited English.
Roads
Shanghai is an integral part of the expressways network of eastern China. Expressways from Nanjing (Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway) and Hangzhou (Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway) terminate at Shanghai, allowing direct access to different directions of China. In the city center, there are numerous elevated expressways (skyways), which lessen the traffic pressure of normal roads. However, traffic in and around Shanghai is often heavy and traffic jams are commonplace during rush hour. On normal roads, there are also bicycle lanes. But on many city's main roads, including elevated expressways, bicycles and motorcycles are not allowed.
Private car ownership in Shanghai has also been rapidly increasing in recent years. However, a new private car owner has to participate in monthly private car license plate auction. Around 8,000 private car license plate are provided every month and only those "richer" bidders can drive their new cars immediately. This license plate 's average price is about 45,291 RMB (5,201 Euro) and perhaps becomes the most expensive piece of steel in the world. The implementation of this unique policy of Shanghai government is to suppress the growth of private car ownership in the city and to resolve the traffic congestion problem.
Railway
Shanghai has three major railway stations: Shanghai Railway Station, Shanghai South Railway Station and Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station. All three are connected to the public transport systems and served as transportation hubs in the railway network of China.Two main railways intersect in Shanghai: Jinghu Railway Railway passing through Nanjing, and Huhang Railway (Shanghai–Hangzhou). In the near future, the Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway line, which is currently under construction will be added to the service and will become the most important high speed rail line in China.
Air
Shanghai is one of the leading air transport gateways in Asia. The city has two commercial international airports: Shanghai Pudong Internationa Airport and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport Both airports offer domestic and international flights, serving more than 71 million passengers (Pudong 40.4 million, Hongqiao 31.3 million ), and handling 3.7 million tons of cargo (Pudong 3.22 million tons, Hongqiao 480 thousand tons) in 2010.
source: wikipedia
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