Category Archives: cities

Is it South Shaanxi Road or South Shanxi Road?

The station on Shanghai Metro Line 1 and Line 10 called 陕西南路 in Chinese is one of the busiest stations on the network. But what’s its English name? South Shanxi Road or South Shaanxi Road?

The confusion stems from a number of factors. There are two Chinese provinces with very similar names:
1. 陕西, pinyin Shǎnxī (third tone, first tone)
2. 山西, pinyin Shānxī (two first tones)

Because Chinese place names are often written without tone marks, in order to distinguish the two, the Romanization “Shaanxi” is often used for 陕西. This comes from an older romanization than Hanyu Pinyin, called Gwoyeu Romatzyh.

So, although 陕西南路 in Pinyin is Shǎnxī Nánlù, an acceptable English translation is South Shaanxi Road. This is the most commonly used form on official Shanghai Metro signage and maps, and therefore it’s the version we adopt for Explore Shanghai.

East Changji Road station opens on Shanghai Metro Line 11

On April 26th, East Changji Road station (昌吉东路) opened on the Anting branch of Line 11 of the Shanghai Metro. While the rest of the line opened last year, East Changji Road, which is located between Shanghai Circuit, home of the Shanghai F1 race, and Shanghai Automobile City, wasn’t ready to open with the rest of the line.

We’ve updated our online Shanghai metro map and PDF map to include the new station. An update (3.3) to our iPhone app is also now available.

New splash: Jiyang Road station opens

Shanghai Metro riders now have a new station to interchange at, with the opening of Jiyang Road, which provides a connection between Line 6 and Line 8.

Jiyang Road is the location for the Oriental Sports Center, which will be the venue for the 2011 World Aquatics Championship. (You can also enter a competition to come up with a nickname for the Center).

We’ve updated our online metro map and iPhone app to add the new station.

See the location of Jiyang Road below!

 

All change please: Taipei Nangang Exhibition Station

The Taipei Metro station at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center now serves both the Neihu Line (brown) and Nangang Line (blue). As of February 27, 2011, riders will no longer need to take a shuttle bus to transfer lines, cutting transfer times between the two lines dramatically.

The brand new Explore Taipei 3.0 includes the new interchange, so you can plan routes, and check times and prices for your journey. Find out more!

Introducing Explore Metro maps 3.0 for iPhone and iPad

Today, we’re launching a major update to our apps! Explore Beijing, Explore Shanghai, Explore Guangzhou, Explore Hong Kong, Explore Taipei and Explore Singapore have all been updated to version 3.0. This includes new native support for iPad and iPad 2!

We’ve taken the best features of the iPhone/iPod touch experience and redesigned them to work on the iPad’s larger screen. Here’s what you’ll see when you start Explore Shanghai.

 

Of course, the metro map takes centre stage. You can search for a station with the search bar, or tap on any station for timetables and route-planning:

 

Notice the “flip” button? A great new feature is the ability to “flip” the screen to see a large Google Map of the station and surrounding area:

Other nearby stations are highlighted. You can also tap the “locate” button  to centre the map on your current location.

Because the apps are “Universal” apps, they work both on iPhone/iPod touch (including retina graphics!) and iPad/iPad 2. If you’ve already bought one of our apps for iPhone, you can install it on iPad for free. And of course, updating to version 3.0 is free. Not downloaded yet? Our apps cost just $1.99 on the iTunes App Store: download now!

We’d love to hear your feedback about ways to improve our apps. Do get in touch if you find any bugs or have any suggestions!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

The Shanghai Daily have a Flash metro map, located at http://live.shanghaidaily.com/station/swf/metro.html.

Looking at it, certain visual elements seem a little familiar.

For example, let’s take a look at our Explore Shanghai legend. A semi-transparent white rectangle, with blocks for the lines, and a key for the “station”/”interchange station”.

Now, let’s take a look at the Shanghai Daily’s legend. Hmm. Also semi-transparent white rectangle, same layout, same labels, same symbols.

When you click on a station circle on ExploreShanghai, the other lines fade out to highlight which lines travel through that station.

On Shanghai Daily’s map, the exact same behaviour:

Their’s has a rabbit. Must be different.

Now, I generally have respect for the Shanghai Daily, and I’m very happy for the competition: but if you’re going to rip off someone else’s work, at least be honest about it.

More Metro construction kicks off in Shanghai and Beijing

A couple of announcements this week: the Shanghai Metro announced that work was underway on three new lines: Metro Line 12, Line 13 and Line 16, as well as an extension to the existing Line 11.

Line 12, linking the northeast of the city to the southwest, will have 32 stations along 40 kilometers, passing through eight districts. Passengers will be able to transfer to Line 1 and 13 at Hanzhong Road Station, to Line 2 and 13 at Nanjing Road W. Station and to Line 1 and 10 at Shaanxi Road S. Station.

Line 13 will include 14 stations, with 16 kilometers of track stretching from suburban Jiading District to downtown Jing’an District. Three stops on Line 13 were in operation during the World Expo last year. The full line is expected to include this section, and extend to Pudong New Area, said the authority.

Line 16, which will have 13 stations, will mainly operate in Pudong’s Nanhui area. It will connect to Line 2 and 7 at Longyang Road and end at Lingang New City.

In addition to the three new lines, the authority is extending Line 11. Its 21-kilometer second phase stretches from Jiangsu Road Station, crossing the Huangpu River and linking to Pudong’s Luoshan Road Station.

Not to be outdone, Beijing announced EIGHT lines were now under construction, all scheduled to open between 2013 and 2015, including the world’s first “low-speed” maglev line.

ExploreMetro will soon be making an exciting announcement of it’s own! Our iPhone apps will soon support the iPad (and of course, the iPad 2)! Check out the video for a preview!

Beijing Subway Challenge

Alex Taggart, who writes for the Global Times Metro Beijing will be heading underground on Wednesday, January 26th as he attempts to visit every Beijing Subway station in one day!

I’m excited to see how he does, as I attempted the same feat in Shanghai in 2009.

So why’s he doing it?

“I’m hoping that in taking up and hopefully beating the challenge, I’ll bring attention to the fact that for less than the price of a jianbing, it’s possible to navigate the whole of Beijing and beyond (336km of track) in a day, with a good few hours to spare if my calculations are correct. In a taxi, the same journey would be super-slow, cost at least 1042 kuai (or 297.7 jianbings), and leave Beijing covered in nasty pollution.

You can follow Alex on Twitter to see how well he does. Good luck!