Shanghai'd

Transportation.

If you have watched CNN or seen any of the international news coverage, you might be aware that China is in the middle of the biggest snowstorm of the past 50 years. It is also the week of Chinese New Year, the time when every displaced Chinese person travels to their hometown to see family.

Chinese New Year + Giant Snowstorm = Jiaotong Nightmare

Millions of people are stranded at bus and train stations, major highways are closed to all vehicles (except cargo trucks carrying precious exports) and flights are canceled to and from everywhere. "Millions" of people is actually roughly 170 million, about 1/6 of China's total population.

We will not be traveling within China for the holiday and just pray our Feb 6 flight to New Zealand is not affected. We have, however, suffered some minor inconveniences during this time, most of which have been our difficulty to find a cab in the sleet and snow. We are totally dependent on cabs, difficulty in hailing one (which is basically on Monday, Friday, rush hour, the witching hour at 1030 pm when Chinese are trying to go home, when its hot, when its cold, when there is a holiday, when it is raining, when we are in a hurry...) is a big part of our life in China. So this week, while the rest of China finds ways around their jiaotong crisis, we have to make due. Here is our contingency plan for those times when there is not a line of drivers waiting to take our fare:

1. Get a personal driver. Not a full time personal driver, that is not really an option, but we do have regular taxi from our house to work. We call him personal driver. This is a great situation. He just won't pick us up to go home. So then we can...
2. Take the subway. Great for getting everywhere except work and home. And it runs until 1030 at night. Ultra-convenient for most people. Not really for us.
3. Take the bus. We have learned some of the buses in Shanghai. One from our house to the subway, which runs super frequently except when it is sleeting and snowing after 10pm.
4. Ride bikes. Most of the time even better than a cab, faster, safer... But not in this weather.
5. Befriend a Chinese with a car. But not in this weather. It's scary enough when
6. Walk. Not a bad option.
7. Run. It's 2 miles from the subway to our house. As coach Servais would say - Long walk/Short Run, with the added bonus that we get all warmed up before getting in bed in our 45 degrees F bedroom. We have resorted to this several times this week.

What a life. Sometimes I love it. Now we are waiting for spring.