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Recalling city鈥檚 raucous buses
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MANY Shanghai residents today complain about the throngs of vehicles that fill local roads, but 20 years ago, most people complained that there were too few to carry so many passengers to their destinations.
The Julong (Giant Dragon) buses, articulated buses featuring two carriages and curved seats in the middle section, helped ferry many residents from home to work. They are also part of the collective memories of a whole generation in Shanghai.
Shanghai’s first electric tram, which travelled between Jing’an Temple and the Bund in 1908, marked the birth of modern public transportation in the city. The introduction of Julong buses in the late 1960s was a move to meet the city’s increasing need for public transportation.
The buses were about 14.8 meters long, composed of two carriages linked by folding awnings. There were only 32 seats in these buses usually, and four of them were curved benches under the awnings. Children loved these seats, which were set on turntables which moved when the bus made a turn.
It was a common scene to witness scuffles among people dashing toward their buses. Though giving precedence to others has always been valued in traditional Chinese culture, this was not the case when it came to getting on a bus.
Buses were almost always crowded. Every passenger would try their best to get on the bus.
As long as they can put their feet on the bus, the supervisors or ticket sellers would help squeeze the rest of their bodies through the door.
There were estimated to be about 30 feet in every square meter on an ordinary bus in rush hour. The Shanghainese joked that everybody on the bus is a great dancer, with their feet dancing ballet, their chests doing dirty dancing and cheek-to-cheek dancing up top.
In these packed buses, it was even more difficult for passengers to get off the bus than to get on. They had to prepare for getting off two or three stops ahead.
It was also common for most residents to change buses two or three times on their way to or from work.
Some buses took out all their seats so as to carry more passengers. They were nicknamed dapeng (caravan) buses, after a famous movie.
In such crowded bus, sneaking aboard was quite common in the days when many were short of money.
There were occasional patrolmen checking tickets on the buses or at stations. Seeing patrolmen at a station, some fare-dodgers would go one more stop and then walk back home to escape detection.
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