Jiading 嘉定 is a district of Shanghai, but far from the downtown Shanghai. I haven’t been there before I attended the wedding ceremony for my friend.
The express way from Shanghai Downtown to Jiading is the first express way in China. It was completed in 1988. I heard about the Shanghai – Jiading Express way in 1994, and in my mind, Jiading must be extremely far away, that people need to connect the two places with an expressway.
Yesterday, we drove there – 13 km from A20 to Jiading, or 15 km in total.
At night, we left Jiading at 11:00 PM, and at 11:40 PM, we are already on my bed in my home.
The Shanghai – Jiading Expressway (named A12) connects with A20, and then directly merge into the newly built Middle-Ring Road, then we went east and turned into the South-North Elevated Road, then Nanpu Bridge via Inner-Ring Road.
The 40 minutes driving experience was amazing! It is just like from San Jose to San Francisco – so many branches, via-duct, elevated road, and without a single red light. It is especially good to drive at night, when there was almost no traffic on the road.
When i was a student, i used to take buses from Jiading to Shanghai downtown every week. it was a luxury treat to take the buses going through freeway, since it’s about 2RMB per ticket ( it went up to 10RMB last time i took the bus). the normal ticket price for local way only bus would be about 50cents ( or free if it’s the bus provided by the school).
it’s pretty amazing that i now drives average 80 miles a day back and forth from home to work, and it average takes me 3 hours on the road every day. i always tell my wife that if i’m asked to work in Jiading and live in Shanghai downtown now, I will be pleased by the time i can save. but when i was a student, the trip from Jiading to downtown seems to be endless, even through the freeway :-)
And it still charges! The first expressway in China is still not a freeway. I doubt whether they have gotten all the funding back yet.
Is this expressway free?
uvu, it is 10 RMB single way.
Driving on the expressway is amazing, but do you think it’s kind of dangerous?
You should drive on the German Autobahn. Many sections of the Autobahn has no speed limit and the average speed is 150 km/hr. Many people drive at more than 200 km/hr.
http://www.autobahnatlas-online.de/
Well. I don’t like to drive too fast. My guideline is always, drive under the speed limit.
There are some places with rediculous speed limit though, like the Wan Ping Road – one lane at exit is marked as <30 KM/h, while lanes besides it is <80 KM/h. It will be too dangerous to drive at the specified speed limit.
Yes, especially the Middle Ring road is Really Great !
Just keep 80 km/h.
There are plenty of speed cameras.
Advice : Plot them into your car GPS.
Давид – “David” – 200++ is possible in China too !
Just find the right places :-)
Why do you think people buy Ferrari’s here ?
Not for fun driving in Shanghai City.
I know some very good expressways in China…
But expect to find boxes, rocks, crossing farmers and perhaps some crashed cars on the road.
Can be an exiting experience :-(
Hi, i drive everyday from downtown Xu Hui to Jiading. it can take up to an full hour due heavy traffic within the city ring. There’s a new road that connects from A8 (pass ikea then after Luna park take a right, then keep going till exit A8), keep going to exit A5, then you pass the F1 track (on the left) and straight into Jiading, probably 5 to 10 Km longer but nearly any traffic on A5. Cost you an extra 5yuan but should get you within 40 min into Jiading Town during rush hours. :)
It seems to be a good tip to visit Jiading with the bonus pack – F1 circuit. Thanks.
My office was in Jiading before and I thought it was quite far. One reason why I thought it was far was because my company had a bus that picked up all the staff near People’s Square at 8am in the morning! I lived in JingAn district so it was ridiculous for me to wake up to commute for 1 hour just to get to work. If I missed the bus, I would have to pay a 80rmb cab ride to get there, which is more than half way to the Pudong airport! I quit that job after a year because of the commute issue and not the job itself.
WJS may think it is close because he has his own car. ;-)
ha,ha ,i live in JinShan district. it is spent 45 minutes from MeiLong. i hope it will build subway.
Hi I like to some information how can get shanghai internation circunt, because next year I will visit shanghai, I hope you can give me direction.
Regards Celine