Shanghai boasts the most established highway system in China. Express ways has been constructed to link all the nearby provinces. The main long distance bus station is near the train station on Qiujiang Road. Buses from here head to Nanjing (4 hours), Wuxi, Suzhou and Hangzhou and other destinations. There is also a new bus station servicing Shaoxing, Ningbo, Yangzhou and Hangzhou.
Timetable of long distance bus
City-Bus:
There are more than 1,100 bus lines in Shanghai. Buses are often packed to the hilt and at times, impossible to board. The closest thing to revolutionary fervor in Shanghai today is the rush-hour bus ambushes. Once on board, keep your valuables tucked away since pickpocketing is easy under such conditions, and foreigners make juicy targets.
Contrary to popular belief, buses are not colour coded-the bus number is. Routes 1 to 30 are for trolley buses (now supplemented by regular buses). Buses 1 to 199 operate from 5 am to 11pm. Buses in the 200 and 400 series are peak-hour buses, and 300 series buses provide all-night service. Suburban and long-distance buses don’t carry numbers-the destination is in characters.
The ticket prices are divided into several kinds which are according to the length of the routes and the condition of the bus, RMB 1 for the routes less than 13 km long, RMB1.5 for the over-13 km long routes, RMB 2 for air-con buses.
But we do not recommend you to use bus since it is crowded and often gets caught in jam. Taxi and metro are your first choices.
It goes without saying that Shanghai buses have a tendency to be over-packed with people at rush hour. There are two bus routes that get me to work in the morning. Some buses are fairly good and sometimes you even find sitting space, while others tend to be very crowded and you have to stand uncomfortably for long time.
As the city gradually turned its buses into self-paying vehicles 10 years ago, most buses in Shanghai are running without conductors to collect fees. The bus operators have faced the problem of receiving spurious coins as drivers are unable to judge what passengers throw into money-collecting boxes. They receive fake coins, false notes and tokens, which look like real coins. The only solution seems to be the improvement of local residents’ morals.
Many buses now have card readers to pay for the fare, which means you get to use a single card for bus, taxi, boat, train and subway.
Shanghai buses occasionally change routes due to roadwork and construction. Sometimes, route details may change without notice! They are generally not informative enough for non seasoned passengers.
Though they advocate a civilized atmosphere of caring for each other on buses, and even encourage passengers who give up their seats to seniors, disabled people or pregnant women, few local residents are willing to give up their seats to more needy passengers.
As buses in Shanghai are usually packed with people, pickpockets and lechers are not uncommon. For people with claustrophobia, don’t take the bus, for they have people shoving their way on or off while being packed in like sardines.
Sometimes, you will say that Shanghai’s bus services are lousy. Some drivers’ attitude is not good. Sometimes they purposely stop at a distance before the bus stop or after the bus stop. Sometimes they don’t even want to stop for you. Bus-mounted mobile TV and air-conditioning often give poor performances when you really need them!