Cities Guide—Shanghai Business hours Business hours in Shanghai are very much those you would find in the West. Office hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5/6 p.m.(some close for an hour at lunchtime). Some offices also maintain limited Saturday hours. Banks follow similar hours. Department stores typically open every day, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Chinese restaurants tend to open and close early(11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-9:30 p.m.), and international restaurants stay open latch Note that dinner in China is usually eaten early, from 5:30 p.m. Eating and drinking Most business entertaining is done over lunch, though a high-profile business deal may be celebrated by a large evening meal in a private room of a restaurant. Unless specifically invited, spouses typically stay at home. The Western custom of after-work drinks is rare, though there is a growing trend for business colleagues to meet for coffee. Try to master chopsticks before you arrive in Shanghai. Chinese food is eaten informally, with everyone serving them selves from several main dishes on a central turntable. In all but the swankiest(漂亮，时髦的) restaurants, messiness is perfectly acceptable. People will happily slurp their soup, toss chicken bones around their plates and spill soy sauce everywhere. Frequent toasts are not unusual. Mao Tai, a fiery 60-70 proof liquor distilled from sorghum, is what you'll typically drink. If you can't keep up, join in the toast with beer or else a soft drink. Drinking a lot(and even drunkenness) may earn you respect or trust, since many Chinese believe that alcohol causes harriers to come down and true intentions to be revealed. You may be invited to eat at someone's home. Always bring a gift(fruit or flowers), and remember to take your shoes off at the threshold. Getting around Public transport If you plan to be in Shanghai for more than a few days, buy a Shanghai Public Transport Card(jiao tong ka), available in any metro station for 30 yuan(refundable when you return it at any metro station). Once you have one, you can put funds on it to use for taxis, the metro, light rail buses and the passenger ferry across the river. Buses Buses are crowded, smelly, hard to understand if you don't read Chinese characters, but extraordinarily cheap. Most inner-city buses charge 1-2 yuan, no matter how far you're traveling within the city. Tickets on long-distance buses range between 1-6 yuan. Taxis Taxis in Shanghai axe good value. You will pay 10 yuan for the first two kin, and then 2 yuan per km. The city has about 50,000 taxis. The only time you'll have trouble finding one is when it's raining. Most taxi drivers do not speak English, so have someone jot down your destination in Chinese characters and take a business card from your hotel with you so that you can find your way back. Tipping is not customary. Try to avoid hailing a cab at 9:30 a.m. or 4:30 p.m., when drivers swap shifts. Metro Shanghai's metro is swift and cheap(2 -6 yuan), but has only three main lines. The government has plans for eight more by 2010; Until then, you could end having to walk some distance. The metro is a good way to cross the river during rush hour, when traffic clogs the bridges and the tunnel. When traveling you can just swipe your public transport card over the card-recognition keypads. Otherwise, you will need to tell the assistant at one of the ticketing counters what price zone you are traveling in and he or she will give you a one-trip ticket. Communications Telephone codes Country code: 86 Area code: (0)21 All Chinese area codes begin with a zero, which is dropped when calling China fro