On the Subway 6: Beijing vs. Shangahi Part 2

Wired has an article about the world's most impressive subways and the 10 they list are (this is not meant as a top ten list, this is just the order in which the pictures are included):

-Tokyo (Japan)
-Moscow (Russia)
-New York (US)
-London (UK)
-Berlin (Germany)
-Paris (France)
-Shanghai (China)
-Hong Kong (China)
-Bilbao (Spain)
-Chicago (US)

The multimedia photo gallery is to celebrate the fact that Chicago's L, the US' second oldest subway system, started operations on June 2, 1883. The blurb about the L explained how Chicagoans love it, but its definitely a love-hate relationship as the CTA is an absolute disaster.

As for Shanghai, the text accompanying the photo states:

Shanghai is the third city in China to build a metro system, and it has
become the country's largest in the 12 years since it opened. Shanghai Metro has
142 miles of track and plans to add another 180 miles within five years. By that
point, it would be three times larger than the Chicago L. The system carries
about 2.18 million people a day.

Shanghai's subway is efficient and has expanded a lot recently to accommodate a large portion of the city and areas that would have previously been considered suburbs. The transportation card is amazingly convenient, working in the subway, on buses, and in taxis. Yet the subway is extremely packed and the people are incredibly rude, it is a battle to get on and off the subway, especially at interchange stations. I'd take Beijing's subway over Shanghai's any day (especially with the RMB2 price and all the lines that are to open this month), though I don't have to deal with the maze of the Xizhimen interchange.