Have you ever experienced the crowded subway in Beijing?

If you are living in Beijing you probably know what I am talking about. Of course I am not speaking about the regular crowded subway. This is common in Beijing, crowds everywhere and workers hurrying, we all get used to it at one point.

No, I am talking about the one during the rush time. The one when you get down the stairs and you see the platform full of queues of people waiting for the subway. This moment when you look at your watch and you notice it is 6 pm — or 8 am — and it’s madness.

The first time that happened to me, it was actually 8 am. I was back in Beijing since 4 days, still re-adapting myself, and had to go to my first day of work. Living in Shilipu, needed to go to Dongdaqiao station, I thought that leaving home 2 hours before, to be sure to make it on time, would be enough. A rookie mistake. At that time I didn’t know how crazy it was to even take a taxi to Sanlitun. The entire road was stuck, I’ve never seen this kind of traffic jam and had no choice but taking the subway. Then, the big cultural shock started.

When I arrived on the platform I saw hundreds of people waiting. I was bothered but still I started queuing. When the first subway arrived, I was horrified. The doors opened, in the blink of an eye it was already full. All of these people rushing inside the subway train by grabbing the top bar waiting for the people behind to push them.

At that point, I literally started to speak out loud to myself saying “Oh my god I can’t do that, oh no, no, no, no, no…” I kept waiting, thinking it will get better after the next subway. But it didn’t. Not with the next subway either. So, I decided to leave and try to go by taxi. Another beginner’s mistake! With some time, you learn that if it’s full in the subway, it’s even worst on the road. I had to go back into the subway station and do what I had to do to get to work.

Of course the queues were exactly the same that when I left, and came the moment where I had to grab the top bar myself, close my eyes and wait for the people behind to push me into the subway. When I finally got inside, I was standing on my tiptoes, so squeezed between people that I was holding in balance. Two stations later most of the people went out and it was like water getting out of a swimming-pool.

After that experience, I’ve always arrived at work 30 minutes before the time I needed to be there, just to be sure I will take the subway before the rush time (rush time in Beijing = 8:00 am to 9:00am)

But still, you can easily forget this little detail about Beijing’s life and find yourself again in this situation, look at your watch and realize that, it is the rush time.

And you, have you experienced that? We are looking forward to hear your story about that!

Always yours,

Aby(-LiveIcanFly)