My mind has been wandering all over the place today and just now has settled on what I will post tonight.

My first thought today was to post something about Canada or Canada Day. I wrote a nice post last year about Canada Day and covered a little bit of the history of their path to full self government. You can read that post here: Canada Day -Eh

I also thought about sharing some of my genealogy research on ancestors who lived in Canada. I wrote a post Almost Canadian? about one of my ancestors who lived in New Brunswick for a short time in the 1760’s. Since that time I also found out that an ancestor in a different branch of the family died in Nova Scotia in 1770. Someday I need to write a post about him.

But, today I finally decided on sharing an article that I wrote five years ago on a previous trip to Shanghai. I will also add a few related pictures from the trip that I just completed.

First a humorous picture, and then the article.

I snapped this picture shortly before we arrived at the hotel that we stayed at. Seeing multiple passengers on a scooter was a common sight in Shanghai. It looks a little unsafe, especially the little boy riding backwards and eating food off of a sharp stick. One bump is all it would take for a major injury.

The Shanghai Derby

How can I explain the traffic in Shanghai other than it is just plain chaotic. Who needs an amusement park with thrilling rides when you can take a ride in a taxi here in Shanghai. The main road that has taken me to the office and back this week is a four lane road. I would say that each taxi driver averages about 10 lane changes per 1/4 mile. OK, I may be exaggerating a little bit, but not much. However, everyone is weaving back and forth on the road, and usually without using blinkers. Depending on what type of taxi driver I have, he is either slowing down to let people in, or is the aggressor and speeding past others. In California we have lane sharing with motorcycles, here in Shanghai there is lane sharing by cars. I cannot count the times that we have zoomed between two other cars when there is barely room. Of course you also have to watch out for the motorcycle and scooter riders who tend to try and take up a complete lane while traveling at half the speed of others. Then there are the company and city buses that just seem to barge from lane to lane to go around slower traffic. Everyone wants to get out of their way as they are much larger. Then there are the slow moving blue trucks everywhere.

You have to be very careful when crossing the road when walking somewhere. Vehicles do not respect crosswalks or even crosswalk signals. You have to be on your toes when crossing the street. You also have to watch out for the bicycles. They will run you down as well. The scooters are especially bad, as they will act as a car when it is to their advantage and as a pedestrian when they have the advantage. When taking right hand turns at red lights, there is no stopping, just a lot of horn honking to get people and bicycles out of the way.

To top it all off, hardly any of the taxi drivers speak a word of English. You always have to have the address written in Chinese for them, or have someone tell them where you want to go. Since Shanghai is immense in area, the taxi drivers do not always know how to get to out of the way places like where our office is in the Free Trade Zone. When we get to the Free Trade Zone I have to point the taxi driver in the right direction. I am glad that hand signals are universal.

Unfortunately I did not take pictures on this trip of the worst of the traffic. We also did not have as far to go to the office. In the article I mentioned the Free Trade Zone. Here is a picture of a large sign that extended across the roadway. We also passed this sign at night and it is lit up in many different colors and patterns. Quite a sight to behold and it can be seen for quite a distance.

Here the traffic seems orderly, but it was not during rush hour.

Here we have a picture of both a vehicle and pedestrian roundabout in the financial district of Shanghai. This is near the iconic Oriental Pearl Tower and also three of the tallest skyscrapers in the world. We had just eaten a late lunch in a large shopping mall that opens up onto the pedestrian roundabout. In this picture the traffic seems calm and orderly but this is on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

I really like the garden in the center of the roundabout, and also the surrounding area. I have a really neat picture of a nearby sculpture of a large snake. This is the year of the snake in China. Perhaps I will share it in a future post. 😉

Looking out from the top of the pedestrian roundabout I saw this long line of parked bicycles and scooters. Just imagine them sharing the roadway with all the other vehicles. You can also see a stream of traffic emerging from one of the many tunnels that run under the river.

I actually think that traffic was a bit better this time. There are a lot of new metro lines open, including one near the office, and that has taken a lot of vehicles off of the roads.

I hope you enjoyed this brief look at traffic in Shanghai. I am glad to be home where traffic is a bit more orderly.

Steven