Beijing Commute.
I made this!
Good morning b3ta. I expect many of you reading this getting reading to go to work. I have the day off today, so I'm able to share the short film I've made about the joys of commuting into the centre of Beijing. The scenes are not staged and are fairly typical of my 80 minute journey.
(
Zuowan, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 6:53,
Reply)
luxury
in shanghai, if your not on-the-ball you will get carried by a crowd down to the wrong platform and onto the wrong train and you wont manage to squeeze out until you are in some strange outta suburb.
I have to say though. compared to my 5 mins, 80 must be torture.
(, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 7:17, Reply)
" if your not on-the-ball you will get carried by a crowd down to the wrong platform and onto the wrong train and you wont manage to squeeze out until you are in some strange outta suburb."
This is exactly what happens here.
I've been to Shanghai a few times, trust me in saying that line 1 in Beijing is substantially worse.
(
Zuowan, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 7:25,
Reply)
Meh.
If you're not "on the ball" on the Northern Line in London they stomp on your head and then kick it around like a football. Then piss on you. Then laugh.
(
JamTallons, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 9:26,
Reply)
Shut up London.
I've done the commute in London, people are packed in fairly closely but they aren't punching each-other in the face and when the doors open at a station there is always room for more people to get in. You don't get five stops in a row where nobody can be physically squeezed onto the train.
(
Zuowan, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 9:35,
Reply)
I have however
seen fights on the northern line. Absolutely bloody brilliant they are. Stressy punch ups which get stopped but then the two protagonists are forced to stand next to each other until the next stop. I'm usually laughing at them which helps too.
(
SpunkyBackpack, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 9:47,
Reply)
When there are fights here it's usually not at rush hour, and always between family members and everyone just stares at them.
Last week, as the doors were closing, they were jammed open by some guy. He was then pushed onto the train by a woman (presumably his wife or girlfriend) who shouted the rudest words in the Chinese language at him. He punched her very hard in the face, then she shouted something else and gave him a scissor-kick in the ribs. It wasn't a playfight - they were hitting each-other hard enough to easily break bones. This continued for an apparent eternity, probably only around 30 seconds, in which they managed to get a good five or six hard blows in. A few people tried to intervene, but nobody was brave enough to get between them and get injured themself. Some girl started crying.
I'm sure there's some interesting point I could make about this, but I can't think what it could be.
(
Zuowan, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 9:59,
Reply)
fuck me I'm glad I live in Glasgow
I get the 747 Airport bus to work, which goes right into the centre of Town, but no-one gets it because they don't know where it goes so it's always nigh on empty (Compared to the 9, 16 and 42 which all go the same way and if I get them I normally have to stand, even on the double deckers)
Even when I used to get the Subway at rush hour it was never as bad as these places. No wonder people take to cycling.
(, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 10:54, Reply)
Yeah
I've seen fights on the Underground.
And indeed I've been threatened with a stabbing on the Tube. For 'bumping into me'. This was in rush hour when it's fairly impossible not to bump into people. I laughed.
(, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 11:06, Reply)
Westbound Central line is like this at 08:30, only being british, nobody says a fucking word.
(, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 9:19, Reply)
It's not.
I guess I have to re-edit this so it's just the last 30 seconds.
For now though; just watch the last 30 seconds.
(
Zuowan, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 9:25,
Reply)
So let me get this straight:
The Beijing tube is owned and operated by Ryanair.
(
Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 9:56,
Reply)
The London commute can be a bit of a b*tch, especially Earls Court when Chelsea are playing at home mid-week. F*cking football twats. However, this video does help make sense of the fact that of all the people who don't let people off the train first and try to pile on as soon as the doors open, Asians, in my experience, are the most prolific offenders at getting right on my tits. Luckily, they're smaller than me and go flying when i accidentally walk through them. Yeaaah, yeeeaaaaahhh! Have some!!
(
Fray Brentos *mega-belms*, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 10:04,
Reply)
Nobody waits for anyone to get off.
If you wait somebody else will get in there before you!
(
Zuowan, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 10:09,
Reply)
I've a friend who recently spent some time in Beijing.
One of the things that struck her was the local approach to queueing. She, being a Brit, thought that leaving a gap of a foot or so between herself and the person in front was just about comfortable.
The locals saw this same gap, and took it as evidence either that she wasn't really in the queue at all, or that she was kind enough to allow a couple of people in before her.
(
Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 30 Sep 2010, 10:37,
Reply)