Beijing traffic — not for the weak of heart.

During our three-week trip around China, we took basically every form of transportation available: plane, bus, taxi, private car, subway, train, cruise ship, and even a rickshaw. My impressions of some of these forms of public transportation:

Plane

I’ve raved about the quality of air travel in China before. The in-flight service provided by Chinese airline companies are head and shoulder above their American counterparts. Every domestic flight we took in China, ranging from one to four hours, had in-flight entertainment (with free headsets) and frequent drinks service. As long as your flight time was around the time of a meal, you were served one on the plane, no matter if your flight lasted four hours or two. Even the flight from Guilin to Guangzhou, which lasted less than an hour, served a snack and bottled water (keep in mind that when you take away the time needed for the plane to reach cruising altitude and then to descend for landing, one hour is barely enough time to push a cart down the aisle and distribute food). And some of the meals were actually pretty decent, with offerings like beef noodles with a cold side dish of squid :-)

In general, the seats and leg rooms on Chinese planes were just slightly smaller than American planes, but only by about an inch or two. Our flight from Xi’an to Shanghai, however, had the roomiest economy seats I’ve ever seen. I could almost stretch out in my seat without having to tuck my legs under the the seat in front of me.

The staffs on the planes were all extremely nice. One of our flights even added the personal touch of introducing every member of the crew over the intercom, along with how many years they’ve served, and each member gave a polite nod as his/her name was announced.

The biggest negative I saw about flying in China was the overhead compartments. They are a bit smaller than on American planes, so even certain carry-on suitcases might be a tight squeeze. Furthermore, people seemed to travel with a lot more irregular-shaped luggage. And many people did not stored their personal item under the seat in front of them. As a result, the overhead compartments are often stuffed, with little space.  So get in line early if you want to make sure you have overhead storage space for your luggage (and the line formation process at the gate can be a bit unruly as well).

Taxi

I think this is by far the simplest way for a foreign traveler to get around within a city. There are always tons of cabs around in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai, and they are extremely cheap. We took a few taxi rides during this trip, and each was no more than 20 yuan (less than $3). On one occasion, we booked a cab for an hour to take us to a tourist attraction, wait there for us for about 30 minutes, and then take us back to the hotel. The total came out to about 100 yuan (about $15).

If you don’t speak Mandarin, then it’s a good idea to take along a piece of paper with your destination written on it. Some of the hotels we stayed at even provided little cards that had the hotel address on one side and a list of popular tourist attractions on the other, in Chinese and English, so you just have to check the box and show the card to the driver.

A common sight in Beijing: the trapped cab driver.

A couple words of warning about taxis:

• If the traffic is bad where you are (like Beijing, for instance), you aren’t going to dodge it by taking a cab. So be sure to ask at the hotel how long it’ll take to reach a place before getting a cab. In some cases, it might be faster to just walk or take the subway.
• Riding in a cab in China can be a harrowing experience as traffic patterns in big Chinese cities are insane. Just keep repeating to yourself that the cab drivers know what they are doing, and keep your eyes up at the buildings and not on the cars coming right at you.

Bus

Passengers packed onto a bus. But at least they can watch TV.

Aside from the tour buses we were on, we took one short ride on a public transit bus in Guangzhou. It was surprisingly pleasant and wasn’t very crowded. Of course, we also saw plenty of buses during our trip that were stuffed to the gills, especially during rush hour. In general, though, the bus system seems to be in much better shape than when I last visited China 13 years ago. The buses seem much newer. They are clean and conditioned, and many even have TV screens to keep you entertained. The buses have very few seats — only a single column on each side in the front half, and a ring of seats around the edge of the back half. The aunt with whom we took our bus ride said that’s designed to allow for a wider aisle, making it easier for people to get off a congested bus. It also helps pack them in as well. Of course, I won’t recommend foreign travelers to try the bus alone, considering how difficult it can be to figure out the routes.

Subway

We were aching to try the subway during our trip, but couldn’t find the time to do it until we reached my hometown of Guangzhou. We took the subway from Guangzhou to the suburb of Panyu one afternoon. The Guangzhou subway system, opened in 1999, was one of the best I’ve seen, in China or the U.S. The stations and the cars were very clean. The stations had automated ticketing machines (residents also can use transit cards that also worked for other forms of public transportation) and provided clear signs in both Chinese and English directing you to the right location. The cars were spacious, and not too crowded during our ride (though we were told it does get packed at other times). There were electronic displays showing the subway line and the next stop, and each stop is announced in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. So as long as you can figure out what stop you want, you won’t have much trouble getting there even if you don’t speak Chinese.

Train

We took a one-hour train ride from Guangzhou to Shenzhen. Before that, the only time I had traveled via train in China was a trip to Changsha back in the 1980s, and it was not a pleasant experience. The car was jam-packed, and people were sitting, standing, and sleeping everywhere. It was loud. There was one cooler of water for the whole car, and the restroom was filthy.

Our ride from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, however, was the polar opposite. Of course, it helped that we bought tickets for a soft-seater car, which, as I’ve read, is a big improvement over the hard-seater. A soft-seater ticket for our one-hour trip cost 70-some yuan (about $10-$12). The car was wide and the seats were comfortable. They were kind of like airplane seats, but with more leg room and there were some booths, too. There was no overcrowding (not allowed) as everyone had a seat, and there was space for both large and small luggage. Smoking is not allowed, and the car was kept clean as a janitor came through every so often. One of my cousins did tell us later on that while trains going between big cities are much-improved, the routes to smaller, less touristy places still lag behind.

The only downside to our train experience came at the station. There were long lines at the manned ticket booths, and half the automated ticket machines didn’t work, creating long lines there as well. There was a security checkpoint, but it was not very orderly or supervised. You put your bags in the X-ray machine, then go through the turnstiles by inserting your ticket, and pick up your bags on the other side. The result was that your bags were often coming out well before you went through the turnstiles, which meant somebody could easily make off with your stuff.

The boarding process was very chaotic as well. The waiting room was inside the station, but when it came time to board, you had to go through a long hallway and up an escalator before you reached the boarding platform. That’s fine if there’s not a lot of people, but this is China we are talking about. So we were caught up in a swarm of people that pushed us all the way up to the platform, clutching tightly to our tickets and belongs all the while.