Welcome to another video.
I'm going to show you how to survive in China without a car.
It's very easy in the big cities. In fact, it's easier in the smaller cities because in the smaller cities
you can very easily get yourself a small scooter
or an e-bike or something and you can travel pretty much everywhere, and so you have your independence.
However in the big cities, because
scooters and e-bikes and things like that have mainly been banned. You are kind of stuck with either owning and a car
which is a very expensive and
daunting thing here in China is very different to the west or
you can use the public transport. So I thought it'd be a great opportunity for me to
show all of you how to use the public transport in a big city and
it'll be my chance to show you some of the more interesting
far-flung places of the city. Now, since we have a very nice day today. It's kind of sunny, blue skies.
I mean, you know the weather here is very unpredictable, and we will definitely have some sort of downpour a little later.
However, it's a lovely day. Why don't we go out to the mangrove, Red Forest as it's called or the Red Tree Forest.
It's kind of like a mangrove.
It's pretty well known for having a bunch of birds and things over there. It's quite pretty. Perfect day for it and today's form of transport
I'm going to use is the subway.
Okay, so I want to go to the
"Hóng Shù Wān".
Let's take a look
There we go. Hóng Shù Wān. Actually you know what, I'm being stupid here.
I can show you. I mind as well show you guys in English since it is possible
and I'm not here to try and brag about my Chinese or anything, so.
Here we go. We're going to go to Hóng Shù Wān
which means
"Red Tree Bay"
You have the option of either paying you know coins or notes. I'm going to pay with a note here.
It's going to cost me five RMB.
It actually gave me a note. Nice.
and
here is my token. Single-use token. I'm going to be showing you how a tourist will do it because I know not everybody has the
Shenzhen Tong card. This is incredibly easy, all you need to do is scan
the token here
and it will open up for you. Says you got a five RMB balance.
Simple.
Straightforward
and I'm going down here to the train.
Okay, so I've arrived in the Hóng Shù Wān station and the trains about to head off to it's next destination.
Show you how to get out of this thing. Very simple.
Firstly, I want to know what exit I have to get out of so if I take a look. There "Hóng Shù Wān"
um
Nature Reserve. To the Mangrove Nature Reserve so let's go there today.
So you know, if you have your normal card. If you live here
you can just scan it
but if you have one of these single use tokens you just, you know, just drop it in the slot and
out you go. Simple as that!
Well as usual, things are never that simple in China. It looks like Exit A is closed off.
It says "temporarily out of service".
Uh.
Okay.
Everything says "temporary out of service". It says
"A Chūkǒu" is like currently closed temporarily? It doesn't tell me where to go though let me ask security.
So that journey took me half an hour. Pretty straightforward. It's very clean. It's very easy to use as you saw and
probably my favorite way to get around the city. Of course, in this video
I'll be showing you all the different kinds of transport, public transport available to you
here in the city.
And this will apply to every big city in China. All the first-tier cities and most of the second-tier cities as well.
If you've confused about the whole tier system. Watch my previous video about why I chose to live in Shenzhen
and I kind of explain it to you. Anyway. Let's take a look at where we are.
Ah. The lovely sounds of construction.
As always, there's something new being built here in Shenzhen and
that building has been around for years and years and years.
Probably since I got here really. Anyway. I know that what I'm looking for is pretty much
over there.
It's going to take me a little while to walk to the actual mangrove so I'll catch up with you once I reach them.
I'm not going to bore you with how to get this. Since
many people who would be interested will be people that actually live here. So here I am at the Red Forest. Although
I don't know why it's called the "Red Forest" all these trees look very green to me.
Anyway, it's actually a pretty cool place. I've always liked it here, and it's been around since I've been here for 11 years anyway.
They have upgraded it a lot.
It's basically just a lovely stretch of coast here is a mangrove further up
and this is sort of the estuary that comes in and split Hong Kong which is over there.
That's all Hong Kong, all those mountains and stuff you see over there, that's Hong Kong. Splits,
you know, Hong Kong and Shenzhen but it's an awesome place to just come and relax and you know ride a bicycle
or just go for a jog or whatever. However,
do not, I repeat, do not come here on the weekend.
It's swamped. You just can't move. It's just like standing in a queue. So don't bother!
Now what I really like about Shenzhen. Is that it's very "pedestrian" friendly.
You know there are a lot of pedestrian walkways and also you know every Footbridge, and so on has a place for
cyclists to bring their bicycles up. Lots of cycling areas in the city.
So it's really friendly and easy to get around on foot or by bicycle as well. Which is, you know, something else
I'm going to be doing during this week.
Okay, so now you've seen the Red Forest mangrove. There's really nothing else for me to do here.
Um.
You know maybe if I came here with my wife or pack the beer or something. Hello.
That'd be fun. This old geezer over here saying hello to me.
Anyway, like I said, it's very little for me to do here. So I'm just going to head on back.
So. Day 1: Taking the Metro. Total cost 10 RMB (1.5 USD). That's to come here and go back.
Total time. Half an hour to get here from my place.
Very convenient. Didn't need a car.
If I'd taken a car, would have taken me the same amount of time. Traffic around here is always bad.
There's always a lot of cars on the roads.
So yeah, no point. However. I must warn you that
during rush hour and on the weekends or any kind of public holiday.
The metro system is packed so be prepared for your personal space to be invaded.
So tomorrow I'm going to take a bus and
that is quite a lot harder than taking the metro. At least for a foreigner
and that's what this video series is going to be about you know surviving in China without a car.
I'm going to try every possible type of public transport here in the big cities.
So I'll catch you in the next one guys. Thank you very much for watching this. I hope you enjoyed it and
as always...
you know the drill...
Stay Awesome!
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