You know, I just have to say it...

There's this thing about China that just irritates me. The metro...a ride on the metro is an enlightening experience on mainland Chinese behavior.

1) the metro sometimes have a smell. it is not the cleanest of metros that i have taken...maybe some lines in Paris' metro system may be worse...but regardless. the people actually use the metro as a form of transporting THINGS. it is very interesting. there are a bunch of people just sitting behind the gates...and they will sit there and wait for someone from the other side of the gates to pass things to them. then they will take those things and take the metro to wherever the destination was supposed to be. and because of that, there is this smell........

2) the metro is also full of litter. there will usually be 2 guys running from end to end of the metro and pass out small advertising cards (usually for airlines tickets). hey, don't get me wrong, i think this concept is quite cool.......except that if you keep doing it, the train gets filled with small cards. and these 2 guys just keep doing it again and again...

3) the queuing to get onto the metro. my goodness, that is truly an experience. say, for example that you are the person seeking to enter...at one end, you have people trying to come out of the train and at the other end, you have people BEHIND you pushing me to go in!!! it is like being sandwiched between 2 immovable objects. despite the calls to let the people get off first, these people just push and bang their way in. it does not help that the doors stay OPEN FOR ONLY A SHORT TIME. i would think that if the doors would be opened A LITTLE BIT LONGER, perhaps there will be less pushing and shoving.

4) last but not least, and the classic, the sitting...why people push to get in, is to rush into the empty seats. sometimes i wonder whether it is because that it is their first time sitting on a metro. i remember this instance vividly...there's a small little gap between 2 passengers. for a local, that space is more than enough invitation so squeeze onto the seat. so this lady made a beeline for it. this girl beside the little space decided to expand herself to remove the space. so this lady could not get to sit. this lady basically stared at the girl and then walked off in anger. my goodness...is it that important??? and the other instance that i'm going to say is even worse. i took the train with my friend who is PREGNANT. NOBODY, and i mean NOBODY offered to give up their seat for my pregnant friend. what's the world coming to??????????? has manners really died in the land of China? and the funny thing is that our culture permeates into other countries like Japan and Korea...and those people took the notion of courtesy to great limits. how ironic!!!

enough venting for a day...
i cannot view my own posts on the blog website for some reason. maybe china does not like blogspot in general.