Shanghai's Inner Ring
Shanghai has upgraded its rail transportation continuously over the past decade, to the point where, today, most areas are served pretty well within the city center (which has itself expanded considerably over the same period). With the benefit of hindsight, it would seem apparent just how ambitious the decision to develop Minghang early was, in that today we can consider Minghang as part of the city center, or almost so.
I, mind you, wouldn’t be caught dead living in such a cultural backwater, (the same goes for Pudong), but if you think about how far away it was from the city center at that time, and to realize that within perhaps another decade it really will be a part of a radically-larger city center…
If you read Wang Jian Shuo’s blog you will be familiar with Minghang and its development.
In the pic at right, I am trying to isolate the inner ring subway, in purple, which connects Puxi and Pudong [river not shown]. Recently I had the chance to go on the number 2 line, in green, from one side of this ring to the other, and I timed it. I found that both legs of the trip, running through People’s Park, take just about 13 minutes. That translates to a fully loaded max time of 15 minutes or so.
So, from the edge of Puxi’s central city 中山公园 to the opposite edge, Century Avenue 世纪大道 in Pudong. 25 minutes. Not bad at all!
The game is something like this: when there is a crowd, almost everyone gets a little over-excited and rushes to the door. This is better today, but at certain places like the train station it always happens. YMMV, but in general the city center is better. A few bright souls always hover around the outside, waiting for the proper time. But, they have no chance to get a seat, you see? In the wrong place, woe is you if you are trying to get out while they are getting in. Sometimes I stand there and block the very center person trying to get in, doing a little dance back and forth as he darts from side to side, intent on grabbing his very own seat. (Yes, people stand right in the center trying to get in. Remember this point). I figure maybe he or she will learn not to expect the very center of the door to be free. I mean, jeez.
In any event you will find but a narrow channel to pass through as you exit. They will give you and those with you a couple seconds to get started, but then will begin leaking in through the sides of the door. Obviously all this is based on mass, i.e. which group is substantially bigger.
In the city center the attendants keep an eye on things during rush hour, but very few are particularly aggressive about it. Generally the Shanghainese are fairly laid back, and by the same token, simply by virtue of the attendants being there with their whistles and their flags, the passengers are generally compliant and well-behaved, at least to an extent. During rush hour, everyone packs in fairly tight, and the people will push their way in from the door. There will be no compunction about pushing in whatsoever; you should get yours while you can, and very few will hang back. I am sure a lot of people hate this, but you will hear laughter from somewhere within the scrum.
Then, when the subway comes to a stop, sometimes it stops too suddenly and everyone is shoved forward. This may have been more true a year or so ago (I no longer need to cope with rush-hour traffic) when they were training a lot of drivers (I presume, I thought I noticed a difference over the course of 9 months or so) for the five lines that just opened. Anyway, the entire crowd of people will lurch forward, but ultimately no one falls down, because we are all packed in far too tight. This will also be greeted with some laughter, but also with some irritated looks.
One funny aspect of getting crammed in like sardines is that people just read each other’s newspapers or magazines, right over their shoulder. And no one cares; its really great. Not doing anything? Study the Chinese paper of the guy in front of you!
On the escalators, in Shanghai there are still a lot of people who do not move to the right instinctively. Those who wish to move more quickly will often just bob and weave through the crowd. If traffic is heavy no one has a lot of options anyway, if light then usually there is a way to move forward. Many people will just brush past those who slightly block the way, with or without bumping into them. If there is a bumping, there will likely not be any apology. You were in the way. Get a clue.
I regularly see public acts of kindness on Shanghai’s subways (and buses, for that matter), and it seems to me that I notice more of these random acts in recent years. However this may not be just a Shanghai phenomenon (although it does redound to the local populace); with so many tourists and travelers and visitors, the very culture of Shanghai is bigger than the local population. Today on the subway I sat next to a family from Shandong (as I surmised through their talk with their 3 year old and through their accent) and the wife had her boy give their seat to an elderly man before they departed.
Another manifestation of this cultural difference about personal space is that most elevator systems in Shanghai don’t work well, because the balance of space and weight allotment is off. In many buildings, during rush hour or at lunch time, too many people will get on an elevator, everyone will naturally pile in, and the elevator will go overweight. Then the buzzer starts and people in the know have to convince the clueless people near the front, the guys who have been in the big city for two days and 52 minutes so far, to get. off. now.
That’s a lot of fun when you are really busy. One day, someone will design an elevator for China. This is my dream.
This seems a suitable place to introduce what I believe to be a reality of Shanghai: As an immigrant city, Shanghai has grown skillful at adopting different cultural traits, while maintaining flexibility in allowing the assimilation of wave after wave of immigrants over the past 20 years, and indeed going back a two hundred years or more. This process involves adopting some basic rules that everyone is held to, but after that…no one will give a hoot.
An example. From time to time, a car will just fail to get moving again when the light changes. What’s wrong? Who knows. But what will the other drivers do? The answer is simple, they will just drive around. That’s it, no drama, usually without a word or even a dirty look. Who knows what’s wrong? I couldn’t care less, and would much prefer going about my business.
Until, that is, it really impacts them, meaning they can’t get around that car. Then, you will hear the horns blaring. Immediately. Which is very much a ‘Welcome to Shanghai’ kind of sound, if you follow me.
At the same time, all of this insanity provides a lot of opportunity, and a very real kind of freedom. Once, just a couple years ago, I was at a major intersection during rush hour, picking up a European person who had just arrived, and whom I had never met before. I noticed the traffic was just right, and in the middle of the insanity that is rush hour in this town, the massive numbers of people moving every which way, strolled, diagonally, across the intersection, and told him on the phone, look right in the middle of the intersection, that’s me.
So, when you see a foreigner walking up the stairs, against traffic, at People’s Square, during heavy traffic? Say hi.