Shanghai is a vast place. With a population of almost 20 million it is hard to get your head around. It only really begins to hit home when you travel, day after day, to the various venues which are playing host to the sports of the Special Olympics World Summer Games 2007.
The Chinese organising committee has set up a system of free shuttle buses, using Shanghai Stadium as a hub. There are 11 lines, and buses run every hour from 8 am to 4pm.
Bus No 6 brings people to the Shanghai Equestrian Field and it travels across raised highways and over bridges and through street after street of apartment blocks.
We zoom through industrial estates. We pass fish farms and bamboo trees and what look like allotments full of vegetables. Then more factories, more apartments.
It takes us an hour of serious driving on large, and largely empty, roads to reach the venue. When we get there we discover that it is another Shanghai special, purpose-built for the Special Olympics, but cunningly disguised as 19th-century colonial, all gleaming dark-wood corridors and airy verandahs.
Each team has its own changing-room, complete with brand-new en-suite facilities. There's also an athletes lounge where drinks and snacks are in constant supply. The families have their own lounge in a separate building.
We wander from the clubhouse to the viewing stand and back, but nobody seems to know what's happening. It's like we've arrived on Planet Horse, and don't quite speak the language. There are, however, good reasons for the delays.
Before the trials can begin athletes have to be matched to horses, a painstaking and emotionally tricky business which is governed by a plethora of health and safety considerations. The horse must be the right size for the rider's height and weight.
"At the 2003 games in Dublin, for instance, we had an athlete who didn't really have the use of his arms," explains Elspeth Ohle, a volunteer who has worked with the Irish team on many occasions at the KARE centre in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow. "In that case, the horse has to be able to neck-rein."
Outside, it's hot. It's especially hot if you're dressed from head to toe in black, as is the Irish rider Niall Masterson. Black hacking jacket, black hat, black jodhpurs, black boots. The effect is ultra-smart, and Niall is ultra-cool as he waits to go into the ring for a preliminary trial to establish his skill level. There's been a lot of waiting this morning, with more to come as the schedule drops further and further behind.
It looks like being a long day for the other members of the Irish equestrian team, Brian Murray, Mary Henry, Dessie Gonoude, Stephen Roche, Pamela Collins, Ann O'Brien, Lorraine Elizabeth Burke, Sarah Kate Jordan and Kieran Buckley.
We trail damply back to the viewing stand. "Sit down and I'll tell you what's happening," says Kieran Buckley's mother, who has come to China from Kanturk, Co Cork along with his two sisters and 11 other members of the family - including a 16-month-old baby Buckley, whose shoulder-length golden curls have already stopped the traffic in Shanghai on at least one occasion as local motorists got out of cars at traffic lights to take pictures on their mobile phones.
Neither the delays nor the humidity has dampened the Buckley spirits. The same can't, alas, be said for the horse which is strolling around the arena at a snail's pace. The Buckleys shake their heads. The bad news is that the horse is controlling the athlete instead of the other way round. The good news is that it's not an Irish athlete.
When Niall finally trots into the arena, there's no wobbling. Straight-backed and confident and immaculately turned out, he might be the new Eddie Macken. We don't clap or cheer, because we've been asked not to distract the riders, but it's hard not to feel a surge of pride. This is Planet Horse, after all - where we Irish are right at home.
Ireland's medal total after the second day of competition at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai rose to 14, five gold, two silver and seven bronze.
In the Shanghai Gaodian Bowling Hall yesterday Ireland's bowlers were in outstanding form, winning gold in the men's team event and bronze in the women's.
The men's team of Ronnie Harris (Dublin), Diarmuid Coughlan (Cork), Darren Carr (Enniscorthy) and Kyle Herron (Portadown) dominated their matches with convincing wins over Germany and Canada.
The women's team - Ann Davis (Dublin), Noreen O'Driscoll (Cork), Rachael Aiken (Coleraine) and Deirdre Garvin (Claremorris) - were in fifth place after their second-round matches, but a spectacular individual performance by Ann Davis, with a personal best score of 196, inspired her team-mates to claim the bronze medal.
In the swimming, Nuala Burns from Navan got the day off to a flying start when she won a bronze medal in the 50m freestyle competition. David Deane from Kimmage was next into the pool when he won a silver medal, also in the 50m freestyle; and Ruth Swann from Portadown won silver when she was pipped for the gold in a thrilling race.
Meanwhile, Ireland's basketball team had a mixed start to their preliminary pool games. The men's team defeated Austria, but the women were beaten by a strong Ecuador team.