Shanghai/Minhang

Minhang (闵行区) is a district of Shanghai, one of the inner ring of suburbs. It is mainly a residential and factory area, but there is a bit of everything. Population is about 2.4 million (2010).

Minhang is the only district with territory on both sides of the Huangpu river, but most of both the land and the population are on the west side. The main access routes (see next section) are also west of the river.

By metro
Metro line runs North-South through the part of the district that lies west of the river, running into Fengxian at South. It connects at its northern terminus, Xinzhuang metro station, to line which leads into the downtown core. Line has a branch line to the southwest corner of the district. The newer line goes direct to parts of Minhang from downtown.

Hongqiao Airport and Hongqiao Railway Station are up near the northern tip of the district. Lines, and  go to those. Line is planned to start from Xinzhuang and go north through Hongqiao Airport to Baoshan Industrial Park.

Line runs roughly Northeast-Southwest across the Northern end of Minhang, with a stop near the water town Qibao, listed under. It connects Songjiang on its Western end to downtown to the East.

Line goes to the part of Minhang that lies east of the river and the  line continues south from the end of line 8.

By car
For drivers, Humin Lu is the main North-South artery, running parallel to metro lines 1 and 5 through most of the district. The Northern part, from Xujiahui to Xinzhuang, has an elevated road above the ground-level street, each about six lanes. Beyond Xinzhuang, it runs at ground level and is mostly four-lane. The S4 toll road runs parallel to Humin Lu a bit East of it through Minhang and off to the South. The fastest way from downtown to southern Minhang, and the usual route for taxis, is Humin Lu to Xinzhuang then switch to S4.

Xinzhuang is one of the city's main road interchanges. In addition to the roads already mentioned &mdash; the one out from Xujiahui, Humin Lu and S4 &mdash; it is on the A20 ring road. That leads to both Hongqiao Airport nearby to the north, and Pudong Airport, some distance to the east. G60, the main highway south and east toward Hangzhou, also starts from this interchange.

By bus
Bus #816 runs from Hengshan Road in the French Concession (terminus on Dongping Lu near Shanghai Brewery) along Humin Lu all the way to the river at the South edge of Minhang.

By metro
The routes described under "get in" above, especially metro line, are also much used for travel within the district.

By bus
There is a complex web of bus services covering the entire district; the buses radiate out from major metro stops such as Xinzhuang, Shanghai South Railway Station and Dongchuan Road. There are also taxis more-or-less everywhere, and taxi stands at most metro stops.

By bicycle
There is a city-operated system of free bicycles, but the stands are card-operated and as of 2012 the cards were available only to registered Shanghai residents; even migrant workers from other parts of China were excluded. There are many stands around town, each with a few dozen bikes; with a card, you can take one. If you return it to any stand within four hours, there is no charge.

Universities
There are two universities near the South edge of Minhang on Dongchuan Road, East of the line metro station named after the street. From the station, a taxi, a moderately long walk or the #3 bus will get you to either.
 * Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU or "Jiaoda"), one of China's top technical schools. There is a free bus that circumnavigates the campus; the terminus is just across from the main gate. This is a large university with over 40,000 students, more than half of them PhD candidates. Jiaoda has several campuses, including one on the coast in Pudong that does mainly marine biology and the original campus in the French Concession that now does mainly continuing education courses such as Chinese-for-foreigners or MBA-for-executives; the Minhang campus is the largest.
 * East China Normal University, just East of Jiaoda. Originally, China's "normal universities" were teacher's colleges but many of them, including ECNU, have now expanded to teach a far broader range of subjects.

To see both campuses, go to Jiaoda and ride the free campus bus around to the East gate &mdash; the fancy Chinese-looking one, moved from the downtown campus to save it from road-widening work there &mdash; and walk across the street to the ECNU main gate.

Buy
Minhang has quite a bit of shopping, mainly for the local market except in the Qibao water town which is well-provided with tourist-oriented merchandise.

There are several large malls, including one almost directly above Qibao metro station and others nearby, a couple of enormous ones across the street from Lianhua Lu (Lotus Road) station, one across a street from Dongchuan Lu station, and one near Xinzhuang station (cross the footbridge over the railway tracks and turn right). Lianhua Lu also has a group of cheap clothing stores at the station itself, mainly for women. The malls have a lot of international brands; for example, Xinzhuang has Marks & Spencer, H&M, a Carrefour supermarket, B&Q building supplies, Dairy Queen and Burger King.

Eat
There are many restaurants along Hongmei Lu, and the area is popular with both tourists and expats. Take line, get off at Longxi Road stop, turn right as you exit the station and right again onto Hongmei Lu. Walk a block, past Yan'an elevated road, and you are in an area full of restaurants including many places with an international menu. Another block down on the left is a pedestrians-only side street with at least a dozen restaurants and bars, including an Iranian place and an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet. Alternately, a #757 bus from Lianhua Lu metro station (fairly far South on line ) takes you along Hongmei Lu.

Opposite the main gate of Jiaotong University is an entire street of restaurants; they cater to students so most are moderately priced. In particular, there are two barbeque places that do reasonably good all-you-can-eat meals for about &yen;50, excellent value if you are fairly hungry.

There are also five clusters of restaurants on the Jiaotong U campus, each of which includes a very cheap cafeteria-style place and several other restaurants. Canteen number 5 has an overpriced coffee shop, a popular Korean place, several Chinese places, and a pseudo-Italian place with reasonable pizza around &yen;25 and several good rice-and-stirfry or noodle-and-topping plates around &yen;15. The same Italian place has at least one other location on campus.

There is a street with a dozen restaurants across from Dongchuan Lu station, Line. The Sichuan place, recognisable by the large red chilis on its sign, is quite good and moderately priced.

Sleep
There are plenty of hotels in the area, especially toward the North end near the French Concession.

The Hongmei Lu area (see Eat above) is a fairly popular choice because it has a good range of both restaurants and hotels, is near Hongqiao Airport and is connected via metro line to both the airport and downtown.