Subway Calm

I don’t ride the subway much, but I do ride it often during rush hour. It’s faster to go the same distance underground, even if you are packed in until it’s nearly painful. Line 1 at People’s Square is espically ridiclous. Last week, in the throng of people waiting to try to get on the escalator from the subway platform, I nearly saw a woman get split on the escalator’s handrail because somebody pushed her out of the path to the moving steps at the last moment.

However, compared to this time last year, the subways are 100% more sane and well mannered. In the past during rush hour, the doors would open and a mass of 50 people at each door on the train would collide with each other in a pusher-takes-all battle to enter and exit. Something like 25 people would be pushing their way out of the train car with 25 people trying to push it. Imagine matter and anti-matter colliding.

These days, at rush hour on the busy stations they have guards manning the platforms ensuring folks wait for the exiting passengers to come out before the boarding ones are allowed on. In a sign of how good it’s getting, I’ve even seen people wait when it was busy without a guard and even better, when it’s not that busy without a guard. People seem to be understanding the laws of thermodynamics better now and not trying to cancel out each others attempts to move.

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Super Bowl Monday

The scene is as follows: From the outside, all we can hear is noise and all we can smell is smoke. We walk in to a sports bar. It’s full of Americans in Colts and Bears jerseys. There’s mugs of beer being cheered with every play and two floors of TVs being yelled at. In the back, breakfast is being served. That’s right. It’s 7am, and it’s Super Bowl Monday in Shanghai.

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