Riding The Metro in Guangzhou

One of the best ways to get around in Guangzhou is to ride the metro. I often prefer it over taking a taxi. To take a taxi you either need to give instructions in Chinese or you must have a business card with instructions in Chinese. You then show this to the driver and he will either nod (yes he will take you) or shake his head (you are out of luck). At the metro you just need to know which stop you are taking and talking is not required. The Metro is clean and organized and fairly easy to learn. The only potential problem is that it can get very crowded during rush hour.


"Tunghe" station is the closest station to my place.



Taking the steps downstairs.




I'm not sure what the small bumpy path is for, but we speculated that it might be for blind people.




People obtaining their metro tickets. There is an option for
English if you can't read Chinese, which I didn't notice until a Chinese person came over and pointed it out.





It's a good idea to pay attention to what amount the machine will accept because some of them are very specific and won't accept large bills. There is usually an information booth where you can get change, or buy a metro pass. Or you can do what I did and try to feed different bills into the machine about 100 times until someone feels sorry for you and helps you buy your tickets using the correct amount.




Here is my friend, Jan, using her metro card. Just swipe the card over the card reader and the gate opens like magic. I love this part.




Now we walk down to platform to wait for the car. And of course, we make sure we are going the right direction by checking the last stop on the route.




Yep, that's where we are going --toward Tiyu Xilu.



Please make sure you are standing in the area with the arrows pointing towards the door! If you are in the wrong line, the subway police will come and remove you! Just kidding :) Of course they won't do that. But you could get trampled by people in a hurry to step out of the car.





Jan, making her way into one of the cars.





A typical scene.



Me riding the subway, although I don't think this picture really needed a description.



You cannot ride the subway if you are afraid of being in close proximity to strangers. I find that most people here in China are quite friendly. Most people will give up their seats for elderly people and kids.



These maps are posted right outside the subway station when you exit and are extremely helpful when deciding which exit to use.




We chose exit "D," which turned out to be the wrong one, so I decided that I would remember the correct exit for next time. Even as I write this, I honestly don't remember which exit I should take. Maybe Jan has a better memory.






All in all, we had a successful trip. Now we just need to figure out what direction we need to walk to find IKEA, where you can get ice-cream cones a.k.a. bing chi ling for 1 yuan. Do you know how much that is!?! It's only about 16 cents!!!! Greg loves it there and has been known to order 2 at a time for himself :)

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