Shanghai Public Transportation Card

A new comer will always be confused by the taxi driver’s question when he/she arrives at the destination and ready to pay: how would you like to pay for the meter: Cash or Card? No, no, no… they are not asking your credit card or debit card. What they are asking is the Public Transportation Card which can be used in any public transportation (Metro, Bus, Taxi etc) in Shanghai .

Basically the Shanghai Public Transportation Card is stored value card where you deposit certain amount of money. It is like a kind of e-wallet. The fee you need pay for any public transportation service will be taken out from the card when you use it.

The card company is now expanding the usage of the card. You can use the card at Metro, Bus, Taxi, Ferry, Toll Gate, Shanghai Tourist Travel Centre, Maglev Train or even some McDonalds and KFC.

To encourage people to use public transportation, it also offers 10% off discount if you spend more than 70RMB on Metro within a month. For example, on 25th July, you have already spent 70RMB on Metro. From this point, you will get 10% off for your rest of Metro trip in July.

To use the card, just simply place the card on the card reader. The machine will deduct the fee from your card. The card allows you to make an overdraft once if the balance cannot cover the transportation fee except for taxi, for which you need to pay for the gap by cash.