Day 45: Stupid Line 9
Friday, May 30th, 2008
You know what’s lame? Shanghai Metro’s Line 9. The Line 9 bus service, which covers the missing segment (Yishan Road to Guilin Road) separating the line from the rest of the metro system, ends two hours before the metro service ends. Line 9 metro service ends at 10:30 PM, but after 8:30 people coming from the rest of the metro system (basically the rest of Shanghai) can’t even get on it. [June 13 update: Apparently Line 9 ended at 9:00 PM. I guess the 8:30 end time for the bus made sense then. Line 9 now ends at 9:15.]
I had to get turned around twice to find out, because the first time was after 10:30 and I figured I just had to get there before the Line 9 service ended next time. Well to my surprise, no bus service at 8:45 tonight either. Me and others who got off there were like wtf, so I asked the guy there and he’s like the Line 9 bus has always ended at 8:30.
They should post up a big sign somewhere, or at least announce it on Line 3 which takes people to Line 9, because I bet every few minutes of everyday after 8:30, a new group of confused people have to find another way home.
By the way, this website is awesome: www.exploreshanghai.com/metro. Click and drag from one stop to another stop to see the estimated travel time. According to their blog, Line 9’s service should be extended a bit starting tomorrow, but it doesn’t say if that includes Line 9’s bus service.










Tomorrow I begin teaching English to my coworkers. (I thought it was today. No wonder no one got ready for class.) When I was first told I’d be teaching English, I thought I’d be teaching a handful of people, like maybe five at most. Turns out I’ll be teaching a classroom of 26 people, five days a week, 30 minutes per day, indefinitely.