Beijing's Subway IS Actually Better than Shanghai's...

Well, you can argue this amongst yourselves. Though I can blog, I can't leave comments, and so when somebody accused me of sarcasm (correctly) for my comment that Beijing's subway was better than our southern competitor, I couldn't respond. In fact, if the commenter would have clicked the link, it would have taken them to an old post on my site quoting a Virgin Air list of the world's top subways that listed Beijing ahead of Shanghai. At the time, I was pretty shocked by this, I admit to being a homer, but Beijing's subway is pretty poor at best (though it gets you almost everywhere you'd need to go).

That said, though, there is 1 area that I will definitely, unequivocally state Beijing's subway IS better than in Shanghai, and that's order. Ever since the Shanghai subway started running, they've had very clearly marked places on the platform for where to stand to get on the train. Similar markings have only existed in Beijing for a year or so. It's really a simple idea, when people are pushing to get on and off, nobody moves, so let people get off, and then board. Granted, to help order, Beijing has a mini-force of security guards who guarantee people will follow the proper procedures and, amazingly, in most cases, with or without the guards, they do. In Shanghai, however, getting off a train is a physical contact sport. Head down, elbows up, and ram through the masses.