Julia's Blog

This week I will present you the three main public transport systems in Shenzhen.

Metro

Since Shenzhen is a big city, you need a way to get from one place to another fast. This is provided by the Metro underground system. The Shenzhen Metro has 8 lines with in total 199 stops and a length 286 kilometer. There are two close metro stops to my house, one for the line 11 and one for the line 1. The metro is really convenient for long distances. For instance if I want to go downtown Shenzhen, it takes me about 40 minutes. Someone once told me, if you ever feel lonely in China, you should just take the metro at any time between 5.00 pm and 6.00 pm and your feeling of loneliness will disappear immediately :)

Bus

Another commonly used public transport system is the bus. There are a lot of buses and bus stops, but so far I have not really figured out if there is a system. However the buses come come so often you don’t really need to know the time. Once you enter the bus, you just put your public transportation card on to a scanner and it will charge you 2 RMB for however long you want to ride. The bus is very convenient, but it’s better to not use it during the rush hours. At first I used to take the bus to get to the University, but this turned out not to be the best option. In the morning the bus is really slow because it is usually stuck in the traffic and sometimes I had to wait for three buses until I could get in one because the buses are so crowded.

Bike

As you might know, I love riding the bike. Here in Shenzhen it is very common to use shared bicycle. There are around five different providers for bikes and I’m usually riding Mobike. It is very easy to use the bike: on the app it shows you all the bikes that are close to you (and believe me, they are everywhere), then you just scan the QR code on the bike and use Bluetooth to unlock it. Once you’re finished with your ride, you just lock your bike wherever you want to. I’ve only been using Mobike for one week and I’ve already rode 34 kilometers. Riding a bike in Shenzhen is really great, because first of all the city is very flat and also there are so many people riding the bike so you feel like you’re very local. The last week I’ve been using the bike to get to and from University and so I can sleep 15 minutes longer in the morning than when I took the bus!