Taking the Bus in Shanghai: Apps, Payment and Schedule

Shanghai buses are cheap and they go places the metro does not, which is exactly when you want one. The parts that trip people up are small: most buses take no change, and a stop only serves one direction, so it is easy to wait on the wrong side of the road.

You do not need a Chinese bank card or any special pass to ride. You need a payment method on your phone, and after that the system mostly runs itself.

Can Foreigners Take the Bus in Shanghai?

Yes. Pay with a QR code in Alipay, or with cash, or with a transport card. Board at the front, get off at the rear. There is no registration and no ticket to buy on the bus itself.

The one thing to have ready before you board is a way to pay, because the driver does not sell tickets and does not give change. That is the whole catch, and it is easy to handle.

How Do I Pay for a Bus in Shanghai?

There are four ways, and most people use the first. Alipay is the one you want. Open it, set the city to Shanghai, tap Transport and then Bus, and hold the QR code over the scanner next to the coin box. The fare is charged later, so there is nothing to top up. One code works for one person; travelling with someone else means a second code, unless you use the app that handles companions, mentioned below.

The other ways all work too, they just take more setup or more small coins. A physical transport card (Shanghai Public Transportation Card) costs a small deposit and you can buy one at a metro station service counter or the airport using your passport. WeChat has the same kind of transport code as Alipay if you already live in WeChat. And cash works, but only as exact change: drop ¥2 in coins or small notes into the box and there is no change back.

There is also an official English app called SH MaaS, known in Chinese as 随申行. It supports foreign phone numbers and international cards, and it has a feature that lets one phone pay for up to two companions, which is useful for a family.

How to Use Alipay to Ride a Shanghai Bus

Set this up once and it works on every bus for the rest of the trip.

1. Open Alipay and make sure the city at the top is set to Shanghai.
2. Tap the Transport entry, then Bus. Alipay generates the Shanghai public transport code.
3. Board through the front door and hold the code over the scanner by the coin box.
4. Wait for the beep, then move in and sit down.

The fare is deducted later, so you do not need a balance. One code is for one person; if you are travelling with others, each person needs their own code, or use the SH MaaS app's companion feature.

Shanghai Bus Fares

Most buses in the city centre cost a flat ¥2 per ride, about USD 0.30. You pay once when you board, and there is nothing to tap or scan when you get off.

The exceptions are the long suburban and airport routes, which charge by distance. On those, check the fare for your stop before boarding, and tap off when you leave so you are charged the correct amount.

A useful extra: with the same payment account, a second bus or metro ride within 120 minutes gets ¥1 off. Cash does not qualify, and the discount only works if both rides use the same card or the same app account.

How to Check Shanghai Bus Routes and Arrival Times, Schedule

Credit: jfdaily

You can check a route in two ways, and the phone is the one to rely on.

The stop itself has a route board listing every stop on the line, and some stops add an electronic board showing the next bus in minutes. The catch is that both are usually in Chinese, and the electronic boards only exist at some stops, not all. The map apps are easier:

• Amap (高德地图) and Baidu Maps both show live bus positions. Search a route number or plan a journey, and the app tells you how many stops or minutes away the next bus is. Amap is the more commonly used of the two for navigation.
• Shanghai Bus (上海公交) is the local official bus app, focused only on buses, with the same live arrival data.
• SH MaaS (随申行) has an English interface and a "nearby transit" view that shows buses approaching the stops around you.

The live arrival feature is the most useful part, because it turns "waiting at a stop" into "leave the hotel when the bus is two minutes away".

How to Get Around Shanghai? Bus, Metro, Taxi or Bike

Shanghai is large, and the right option changes with the trip.

For a visitor, the metro is the backbone and the bus fills the gaps. Use the bus for a route the metro does not cover, or when the distance is short enough that walking to a metro station is half the trip. The bike is for the last kilometre between a station and where you are actually going.

The Shanghai Sightseeing Bus Tour

If you want to look at the city instead of just crossing it, there is a double-decker tour bus called Shanghai BusTour, with an open top deck.

It runs three hop-on, hop-off routes from near Nanjing Road. One loops through Puxi and covers Nanjing Road, People's Square, the Bund, Yuyuan Garden and Xintiandi. Another crosses to Pudong for the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Jin Mao and World Financial Center towers. The third threads the older streets past Huaihai Road and Jing'an Temple.

Buses run 09:00 to 21:00, with last boarding around 17:00, and a ticket costs about USD 12, usually a little under the walk-up price. Commentary plays in eight languages. It is a tour, not transport, so buy it for the view rather than for getting somewhere.

Tips for Riding the Bus in Shanghai

• Check the direction before you wait. A stop serves one side of the road, and the opposite bus boards across the street.
• Board at the front, leave at the rear. The scanner and coin box sit by the front door.
• Bring exact change if you are paying cash. No change is given.
• Scan once on flat-fare routes. Distance-based routes also want a tap-off when you leave.
• One code, one person. Do not scan the same code twice for a friend; use the SH MaaS companion feature instead.
• Keep the screen bright. A dim phone is the usual reason a scan fails, and you do not want to discover that with a queue behind you.

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