Normally foreigners mostly don’t drive cars in Shanghai. But as a local recruited Japanese, I already took driver license in China and usually drive. And I also often use gas station. 

I often use gas station close to my office. It always is crowded there. When I get inside gas station, I fight with another cars as they roughly interrupt my ways. 

Gas types

Finally when I get inside gas station, lady take care of my car. They first ask me the type of gas. There are 92 and 95 (and 98). 92 is regular gas and 95 is high octane-gas. 98 is for new cars or luxury cars. The numbers come from octane.

I would tell the lady, “jiaman”. It means please fill in the tank. You can also tell them 100yuan, 200 yuan. Gas station don’t accept cashless payment by smart phones. They only accept cash.

Why don’t they accept cashless payment?

In China mostly you use smart phones to make payments except gas station. I ask for another gas station but it was the same thing. Why … Gas station offers pre-paid cards and customers mostly use these cards. It seems like this way is the common way. I asked the lady if I can make pre-paid card but rejected. Foreigners cannot make pre-paid card for gas station. 

Get the receipt

There is a small convenience store inside gas station. You can get the receipt there. There are many kinds of stuffs inside this store. Foods, beverages, cigarettes etc… Very convenient.

Are there “self service gas station”?

In Japan there are self service gas station. You can put gas by yourself. But it seems like there are no gas station like that here. Maybe it is because the manpower cost is reasonable here. In Japan there are also cleaning service when you fill in a gas. But here also no. You can find many places that you can clean your cars and it is very reasonable.