A typical bus stop with shelters in front of Muen Church near People's Square.

Bus and trolley bus (to be mentioned as just bus below) may be not the best transport for foreigners, but having some knowledge about it will give you an option when you come across a traffic problem, especially when you cannot find a taxi on a rainy day or have no idea where the Metro station is.

Shanghai buses can be extremely crowded in rush hours and some of them are not totally clean. But buses on busy shopping streets or connecting major attractions are in excellent condition and during off-peak hours it is a pleasure to ride in them. Plus, the bigger windows of a bus will give you a better view of the city than taking taxis or subways

Bus stops

The back side of a bus stop plate showing all the stops and the fares of the bus route..

Shanghai's bus stops are generally near intersections, and a stop is usually named after the closest road intersecting the road the bus running on.

A tall post with a plate on the top, which looks like a flag, indicates a bus stop. One plate stands for one bus line. If the stop serves three bus lines, it will have three plates.

On one side, the plate shows the route number, the stop name and the next stop. The other side displays all the stops along the route, fares and the time when the first bus and the last bus will arrive at the stop. They are all in Chinese.

Some bus stops have a shelter, which may make it easy to recognize a bus stop. But those without a shelter could be missed because they may be hiding behind sidewalk trees and telegraph poles.

Fares

The bus fares are cheap, compared with subways and taxis.

Most of the city's buses charge a flat fee, no matter how far you go. Fares on plain buses are 1 yuan (12 US cents) and air-conditioned ones charge 2 yuan. Most buses running on downtown streets are air-conditioned. Some buses running long routes may charge 1.5 yuan.