I wake up in my Pudong home. The clock was 8:15 am. We had 45 minutes to drive 13 km to our office at Xujiahui
I don’t know when others get up in other countires of this planet; 8:15 is obviously too early for me. My friend in U.S. commented: “I don’t believe life in Shanghai is more busier than in U.S.” Well. You bet. Shanghai’s life is at least busier than Seattle. New York? I know it is much busier, but I have to see by my own eyes next month to judge.
Around 8:25, Wendy and I appeared in the car. Booted and warmed, the car turned right and run onto the Jin Xiu Road in Pudong. Ten minutes later, we were on the Nanpu bridge. I studied New York map today and found Nanpu seems to be at the simliar location of Brooklyn Bridge.
After the Fu Xing tunnel opened, Nan Pu changed a lot. Before, it was very crowded at rush hours and cars moved very slowly (5 km/hour???) although never stopped for more than 30 seconds. It is no longer the Nan Pu in my definition. When I drove my car onto the bridge and ran at speed of 70 km/hour, I asked Wendy: “Are we really on the Nan Pu Bridge?” I I said it almost every morning.
The Pu Xi side of the Nan Pu Bridge is funny – the road goes along a large circle to slowly goes down. Before I entered the Lu Jia Bang Road, my car had turned 500 degree already – one and a half full circle. Because the Nan Pu Bridge is too high (it has too accommendate large ships on the Huang Pu River), the distance I have to go on the bridge is almost five km. It is safe to claim about 40% of the distance I cover every morning is spent on a bridge.
Unlike the positive change of the Nan Pu bridge, the other part of the roads became crowded everyday. The portion I spent on the bridge and off the bridge changes everyday. I spent more and more time on the road between Nan Pu and Xujiahui.
My driving skill improves dramatically during the last year. I have completed the internship (one year after getting driver’s license). As a (some-what) experienced driver, I started to feel Road Rage. I hate driver behind me to horn and flash front light pointlessly. I always wanted to step on the brake when I found these rude drivers…
Pull the car into the undergrand parking area, It was almost 9:00 AM. Basically, it is still a fantastic idea to have a car in this city. It feels like stepping into one’s office directly from the breakfast table.
P.S. I will visit Shanghai Jiao Tong University Min Hang Campus to speak at a Microsoft Technical Club event at 7:30 PM, Nov 25, 2004.
Getting to work around 9:00…that sounds pretty nice. How late do you stay at night usually?
I gather it is 8:15 am when you woke up, certainly not 8:15 pm as you wrote there. Right?
getting up 8:15 is quite late in shanghai
Normally office hour is 9-5, so why some guys feel suprised at working around 9:00?
Hey jiashuo, be sure to visit the Grand Central Terminal in N.Y.C. in the early morning if you have time. Most people who work in the city live in the suburb, Connecticut, New Jersey, or upstate New York. For business people in particular, most of them take the train to New York, and so most likely they have to get up from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. depending on the nature of their jobs. If you wanna drive to the city, fine, but you’ve got to be really early as well, otherwise you’re guaranteed to be stuck in a traffic jam.
jealous of you guys. really lov shanghai, love the pace of that city.
it’s like a dead sea in sydney.
it’s not cold there, ah?
Sydney is not that bad is it? A friend of mine from Beijing went to the Olympics and loved Sydney. I am not a big city person. One thing I don’t like is driving and parking. When I lived in San Fran. traffic was bad all the time and I averaged 3 parking tickets a month. I love the freedom of driving any where at any time, and love my car. I rather live in one of the smaller cities around Shanghai and drive to work if possible.
Some business (often those state-owned large enterprises) start to work at as easly as 7:30 AM.
Did independent companies start their hours at 9 to avoid traffic peaks? And do the 7:30 companies close off for two hours at noon?
Hi Jianshuo, do you stop for pedestrians crossing (in a legal way) anymore ?
I heard that the fine has been rised to 200.000RMB for killing someone crossing a pedestrian zone…