Crazy Beijing Public Transportation

Even when I was in Hong Kong I have never seen public transportation problems like I have seen in Beijing. Things get CRAZY.

My friend and I were going to dinner after work together and the quickest and cheapest way there was by subway. I've been in Beijing for quite a while and it's always astounded me how the public transportation systems work here, and especially how the safety systems work, or don't work. We got in line for the subway and the entire platform was filled.

Before I continue it would help to make a distinction between the various meanings of space. Chinese have almost no sense of personal space: I often have conversations with people literally 3 inches away from my face, and they don't realize that they are doing anything that might be peculiar, because to them it is perfectly normal. People commonly stand very close to each other, touch each other, play with each other's things without asking, and so on. This is common conduct.

So when I say that the platform was full, I don't mean the American notion of full, but rather the Chinese, or rather Beijing notion. Not only is there no room to move, but if you breath too deep you might push somebody onto the tracks - seriously. You don't have 3 inches between people, but rather the sweat off the guy behind me comes out of his pores and straight onto my T-shirt, or arm, or neck.

The problems that this kind of crowdedness could create never dawned on these people. Just imagine if the Mr.H5N1 (bird flu virus) mutates and makes it's cute little way onto the platform with us. How long would it take for that to spread? 3 seconds? Really though, one cough from a guy with a cold spreads to about 30 people, not to mention how damn hot it is with all of those bodies waiting for the train.

So finally a train arrives at the station and I'm thinking "great we can finally get out of here." Oh no, not in this city. To my horror the train is as packed as the platform is. Well, I should have guessed - if they pack the platform this way, how much better could inside the train be? The doors opened and immediately the crowd pressed forward. I didn't have to exert any energy on my own, the crowd moved me forward, or more like squished everyone toward the train hoping to increase the person / inch ratio inside and snag a few extra places. It reminded me of science class: you two spaces, one with a dense molecule / amount of space than the other. When you allow flow between the two, the density will equalize. Science at it's roots - I guess even people can't escape the laws of physics.

A few trains later I finally got in with the natural flow. Another guy didn't want to accept the laws of physics and so reached in the doors, grabbed onto a handlebar, and with all of his might pushed, and pushed, and squeezed us all as tight as he could until finally his back was just passed the sliding door's slot. Amazing - so do we all have to be monkey's to get around town in a timely manner? I'll stick with physics thank you.

Just yesterday I saw a bus that had a few half bodies hanging out the windows. The bus driver got out and instead of telling people to get off, he helped squeeze the people in so that the doors could close.

In Beijing's defense, this only happens at peak hours (8-9:30am , 6 - 7:30 pm) for the most part, although in some places it's happens more often than others.

I wish I had some more pictures, but I didn't think to take any until I had already gotten off the train.  Oh well, plenty of opportunities in the future.