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ROAD:
Travel on the roads of China is an adventure in itself and is not for the faint hearted. The larger cities have motorways linking them to satellite cities and ring roads within the city. Cars, buses, trucks, bicycles and pedestrians all fight for the same space and accidents are not uncommon. Out in the countryside the pace is slower, It has to be if you are on a potholed dirt track. The additions to the human users of the road include donkeys, pigs and chickens! Having said that the situation is a lot better today than for only a few years ago. The major problem is that cities are not dimensioned or designed for motor traffic and it will be a problem in the future.
Bus:
There are good long distance bus services with air-conditioned buses. They are quite cheap and tickets can be booked through your hotel. There are now good bus services from the major airports to downtown. These cater for international travellers, with signs in English and personnel that speak English to varying degrees. Examples of services are those from Shanghai and Beijing airports. Various minibus services run in the big cities but you need to know exactly where you want to go or you will get lost and don’t expect anyone to speak English. Even between cities, there are minibus services. The ones I have travelled on have been both good and less good.
Taxi:
Available in every city. Prices vary according to city and to size of car. The most expensive I have seen is Guangzhou at 2.60 CNY/km and the cheapest was in Yibin in Sichuan province at less
than 0.50 CNY/km. The standard is variable but generally rather low. You can hail taxis on the street except where traffic signs prohibit it.
Subway
Presently a very cheap if somewhat limited way to
get around both Beijing and Shanghai. Both are clean and run between early morning and late evening. Try to avoid rush hour. Fares are between 1 and 3 CNY in Shanghai and 3CNY in Beijing. You pay either in a machine
or at a manned gate. Change machines are available next to the ticket machines. As the network in each city is very limited it is not so difficult to find your station but you have to know what the Chinese
characters are as there are no pinyin translations on the ticket machines. It’s useful to know the name of the end station on the line you will be taking as this is often all you will see signed when approaching the
tracks. The maps inside the trains have both Chinese and pinyin names on them.
Bicycle
If you are going to be in one city for some time and you have the time rent or buy a bicycle. The hotel
you are staying at will be able to help. A standard bicycle will cost 200 CNY and up. The most expensive bike I could find anywhere was just over 1000 CNY. (I bought a mountain bike for 800 CNY and am still using it
in Sweden today. It’s not as good as my Peugot mountain bike but it was only a fifth of the cost). You are reasonably safe cycling where motor traffic is segregated from bicycles. I spent a lot of time cycling
around the small villages outside Shanghai. Everywhere I went people smiled and said hello. A foreigner on a bike is still a rare site in many places.
Car rental:
Not very common as yet, and not recommended outside the big cities unless you know where you are going and have
some good maps. In theory you can rent a car in the major cities and use your international driving licence. You are limited to local destinations, which means you drop off the car where you pick it up, but in
reality if you don’t have a Chinese driving license I believe you will find it more or less impossible to drive. The skill of local drivers varies from excellent down to suicidal.
I gained a Chinese driving
license and drove in Shanghai and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The procedure takes about three weeks and involves a strict medical, followed a week later by a written test (you have to pass 16 of 20 multiple
choice questions from 100 that you are given to study when you take your medical exam) but no practical driving.
Auto Rental Net
RAIL:
The rail network in China has more than 65,000 km of tracks and reaches every province except Tibet. It is very cheap to use, the trains are rather frequent and rather slow and in my experience always full. As a traveller try to get soft seats, as sitting on a hard wooden seat for many hours doesn’t enhance the journey one bit. It is always fascinating to observe ones fellow passengers. Tea and food on the journey is a must. Hot water is always available. Beware of the toilets. Not recommended. How do you book a train ticket in China? English explanation to official Chinese site for online booking
Train Travelling in China - Good practical information about tavelling by train in China 
Fodor Train information
Railwaysofchina Comprehensieve site - good information
Train Travel Asia -Not only for China
TravelComHK Various timetables and price lists for trains from Hong Kong
Peak Tram Hong Kong -Information, timetable & prices
China Travel Service (Australia) Various timetables and price lists
Maglev
This is a rather special transport form, not only in China, but in the world in general. There is just one Maglev line in China and this is in Shanghai. It runs between Pudong International
airport and Longyang Road. When I lived there construction had started but the system was not in operation. The journey takes only eight minutes but once you reach Longyang Road
you have to transfer to either the Metro (in the same building) or take a taxi to your destination. If your destination is in Puxi, I recommend the Metro as road traffic across the
river is always an adventure in rush hour despite the opening in 2004 of both new tunnels and new bridges across the river. The fare is 80 CNY for a single trip.
FERRY:
The ferries that I have used have been the famous Star Ferry in Hong Kong, those running between Hong Kong and Macau plus Hong Kong and Guangzhou and smalle ones
running across the Pu river in Shanghai. All except the latter were modern and reliable. There are ferries all over China, everywhere there is water. They range from local one man
operations to large companies. Not much on the internet though.
TravelComHK Various timetables and price lists for ferries from Hong Kong.
Turbojet Ferries between Hong Kong and Guangzhou.
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