A Quick Guide to Transportation in China

If you are traveling to Shanghai, Beijing, or Xi'an, China, this is a quick reference guide to using the transportation. Pictured below is the hard sleeper train from Xi'an to Shanghai.

Taxi – This became our preferred mode of transportation in Beijing and Xi’an. The metro in Beijing was simply too far away and cabs start at 10 kwai or about $1.50 so they aren’t expensive by any means. Legitimate taxi drivers are easy to spot and have the proper markings on them, a meter, and their credentials displayed. The only problem is that some Taxis only travel to certain areas or don’t want to head to others because of traffic. Shanghai taxis went everywhere without a problem but in Xi’an they kept refusing to go to certain locations, namely the center of town where all the traffic is.


Train – trains were more of a pain to book than I had anticipated. Chinese trains, depending on how fancy they are, can only be booked a few days prior. In addition, they cannot be booked via Internet. If you speak Chinese you can do it by phone. The biggest pain is that you cannot book a roundtrip ticket. Therefore, once you arrive at a station I recommend purchasing your return ticket immediately to avoid an additional trip to the station and lack of availability. They accept only cash and speak minimal English even at the counter for foreigners. Beware of trains filling up on holidays and since nothing can be booked in advance, the ticket offices are always busy. Allow about 20-25 minutes to purchase tickets.

Landing in China from David T. on Vimeo.

Plane – We flew Continental Airlines from Newark, New Jersey, to Shanghai, China, nonstop. The flight was great: smooth, fast, and a friendly staff. A new plus is that Continental now has an on-demand movie selection of over 300 movies! Awwesome!. The only problem was the food was absolutely gross and it made me sicker than any food that I tried in China – even the street food. FYI: bring your own snacks. When we landed we had our foreheads scanned to see if we had a fever. Fortunately, none of us did because whole planes were being quarantined for Swine Flu as a result. We flew at the height of the Swine Flu scare and China took extra precautions because of the SARS outbreak in 2004.

Metro Shanghai – The metro was cleaner than New York’s, smooth and brand new. Everything is in English and it is easy to get around. The metro is quite extensive and can be easily used to access the Pudong International Airport via the Maglev train.