Shanghai Surprise

We took a quick trip to Shanghai over the weekend to take a little time out before the holidays. Tuesday we checked out of the hotel and headed toward the Metro (subway) station so we could catch our train back to Suzhou. It was just after noon when we checked out so it was probably 12:15 – 12:20 when we arrived at the entrance to the subway station. At the top of the stairs was a message in Chinese along with 2 metro station workers standing there. There was some caution tape across the entrance to add to the mystery. We wondered “What the heck is going on here?” and since we don’t read Chinese, it was even more confusing. Tammy asked the worker if we could use the Metro, she asked where we were going. Railway station. Then she gestured to go ahead and go down into the station. There were very few people around but we thought nothing about it since it was the middle of the day. We were on Line 1 and had to go through the major interchange (Peoples Square, similar to Five Points from Marta but with about 5 times the number of people, it’s a major interchange and always has the most people) and stay on the same line for a few more stops to get to the Railway station. We figured we would have plenty of time since the train didn’t leave until 2:21 (or 14:21 in local terms).

The first subway train ran straight through the station without stopping which seemed a bit unusual but we just stood there and waited for our train. The next train stopped by a few moments later and we hopped on. It didn’t move for several minutes and we wondered what was the holdup but since the locals didn’t seem to notice, we did as the locals and sat and waited. The lights went off on the car but came back on within seconds. Another 30 seconds later, it happened again. But soon enough, the doors closed and we were on our way to Peoples Square. Along the way, the car slowed for some reason but it picked speed back up again and the voice told us we were arriving at Peoples Square station.

We immediately noticed that something was quite right as we arrived into Peoples Square interchange and we saw no one….I mean nobody. The place was empty, nothing, nada. Something was wrong because this can’t be normal, Shanghai is a huge city and the metro is always crowded and to see no one in the major interchange was kind of eerie. It brought back memories of driving back into Atlanta from SC on 9/11. The highways were virtually empty with very few cars on 285 and the traffic signs indicating “National Emergency: Airport closed”. That was so strange and this reminded me a lot of that. The locals didn’t really say too much or seem to notice but something was wrong, you could feel it. We were in the front car of the metro and there is a line monitoring station right there by the front car. You can see at the next stop (or somewhere else, I assumed it was the next stop) there were a lot of police, construction crews and others moving around frantically. Flashlights were being used all around the car we could see, both from inside and outside the car. A few metro line workers were on their radios talking and some announcements were being made. Of course we didn’t understand what they were saying so we stayed put (just like the locals). We figured that perhaps it was a delay of some sort. I walked closed to the monitors to see what was happening since it seemed that there was something wrong from what I could interpret from the monitor. The next thing we see is one of the metro line workers running up through the length of the train waving everyone off the subway. He seemed a little worried and so we stepped off and figured we would be waiting for another train or something. Once we stepped off, there were other metro line workers and security personnel waving us towards the exits and indicating that we were to leave and quickly (kwai le! kwai le!). Now we’re getting a little more anxiety than before, what was happening, a fire in the station, a crash, a chemical leak (attack)…it was all running through your mind. At the top of the stairs, on to another level for the subway, we noticed that all of the entrances and gateways between where we were to the other lines were closed (it was like a bunch of garage doors that had been closed shut), something we had never seen before. Usually the station was bustling with activity no matter which line you we headed to. You would crowd on to an escalator, walk through the maze and perhaps go back down another escalator to the next line or wherever. In this case, they even had the pay gates wide open for people to walk through. They didn’t seem to care about people getting charged; they just wanted you O-U-T! We finally exited out to the street wondering what just happened (and how we were going to get to the Railway Station).

As we wandered for a few moments to gain our bearings, we were approached by some college age kids that asked us the standard “Where are you from? How long have you been in China?” type questions. They were very nice kids, they even said “Merry Christmas” which was even more surprising. We asked if they knew what was going on and they indicated that there had been a crash on the metro line that morning. It kind of answered the question but we still had a lot of unanswered questions running through our heads (like sugar plums). They helped us figure out where to get a cab and we headed out to get a cab. We learned quickly that although there seemed to be an abundance of taxis in Shanghai, there weren’t enough. It was much more cutthroat than in Suzhou and we had a hard time hailing a cab. After about 20 minutes, one stopped and we hopped in only to be rebuffed by the cab driver as he wasn’t going to take us to the Railway station. We were angry but we got out like a good tourist. We didn’t expect it to take another 15-20 minutes to get another cab. While we waited, people would leapfrog ahead of us (towards the stoplights) to be the first people the cabbie would see so he would pick us up. We would move, they would move, we would move, they would move….you get the idea. In the meantime, I told Tammy that if the next driver would not take us, offer him 100 RMB for the ride (the ride couldn’t be much more than perhaps 25 RMB so he would make out like a bandit) to sweeten the pot. Finally, we got a taxi to stop and we were off to the Railway Station.

Finally we understood why the Metro was so popular. Traffic on the highways was a nightmare. It took us 15 minutes to go less than 5 km. The two left lanes barely moved while most weaved in and out in the two right hand lanes. It was bizarre to see how bad traffic was. We thought Suzhou was awful but we had no idea at all. We arrived at the Railway station at about 1:40 (and yes, we had to bribe the driver with the 100 RMB which he had to consider before accepting), which gave us a little time to get something to eat if we wanted it but we were kind of exhausted from the stress of the day and just wanted to go in and sit and wait for the train.

When we got home we searched the web for information on what happened and below is the official story from a Chinese news outlet.


SHANGHAI, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- A Shanghai subway line that was closed early Tuesday after a system failure and subsequent collision of two trains, has reopened, subway authorities said.

The two trains, coded 150 and 117, both moving slowly, collided at 7 a.m. after a short circuit caused a power system breakdown in Shanghai Subway Line 1, said a spokesman with Shanghai Shentong Metro Co., Ltd (Shentong), which operates the line.

Train 117, which was empty, left the site at 10:17 a.m. after repairs. But the removal of Train 150 was delayed until 11 a.m. when the passengers trapped inside were rescued, the spokesman said.

He gave no details on how many people were in the train.

Train 150 was dragged out of the station at 11:48 a.m. and Subway Line 1 resumed normal operation at around 12:15 p.m.

No one was injured and Shentong was investigating the cause of the accident, he said.


We know where we live and we accept that the news is what it is, it comes with the territory. We were ushered out of the subway line at around 12:20 – 12:30 when according to the story the line was reopened so it makes you go hmmmm. We won’t go any further but needless to say, it was an interesting end to our quick trip to Shanghai. It makes you keenly aware that when a public transportation option shuts down, it impacts just about everything. One bad experience isn’t going to sour us on the Shanghai metro line, after all it’s the best way to get around and see the city. We’ll be back in a couple of months to see more of what Shanghai has to offer. Stay tuned as more stories will be added very soon pertaining to our short visit.