Beijing Rush Hour

Before coming to China, I read about snaring traffic in Beijing, and this past week I experienced it in its full glory.

During rush hour, which begins around 4:30 or 5 p.m., it took Scott and me nearly an hour by cab to go five miles to get home. In other cities, you inch along in a car, at least feeling some sense of progress. Not in Beijing. We sat for a good five or 10 minutes and not a single car moved. Our cab driver got so annoyed that he stepped out of the car and just stood in the street, staring ahead at the mass of tail lights, as did other drivers. There was honking for no reason except for the "I'm really frustrated and pissed off" reason and light cycles went from green to red with no movement. And then, just as quickly as cars had stopped, they started moving again. No accident, no construction, no explanation of anything.

Sans driver: bad traffic leads our cabbie to get out and stand in the street.

After our traffic experience -- and another evening when we stood for 30 minutes trying to hail a cab, only to see dozens go by with either passengers or without their "for hire" light on -- we decided to try the buses and subways. Both are absolutely great.

The subway stations are relatively new and have amazing directions; the exit signs, for example, tell you to take exit A for the Raffles City mall or G for the China World hotel, which is much nicer for me since I'm still not sure of the roads, but do know my destination. During rush hour, the subways are packed and there are platform workers who attempt to line up people on either side of the subway doors so people can get off first. This works so-so and usually just ends in folks shoving each other into the car.

A clean, bright subway station in Beijing.

There's much more shoving here than in New York and when I thought I'd experienced a jam-packed subway car in NYC, I was completely wrong; here in China, the meaning of tight is taken to a whole different level. It reminded me of those PSAs in the New York City subway that say a crowded subway isn't an excuse for sexual harassment. In Beijing, my body was pressed against bags and other people in a way that even New Yorkers would deem questionable, but no one here seemed bothered. I guess in a city of 20 million people, personal space quickly becomes a moot point.

The other great part about Beijing public transportation is the technology. On buses, I tap my subway card against the machine, a la "tap and go" credit card style at places in the U.S., and many of the subway lines have LCD displays in the tunnels that play ads in a flip-book type of fashion. Cell phones work underground and the automated "we are arriving at such and such station" is in English and clearly heard, unlike the muffled tones of NYC's subway announcers. As an added safety benefit, all belongings go through a security check (conveyer-belt screening) before you're allowed to enter the subway.

LCDs in the tunnels, with movements like a flip book. 

But wait for the BEST part: a subway ride, no matter how far, is the equivalent of 30 cents. And a bus ride? A mere 15 cents. #Winning.