Fuddland

Indicating where to stand as the subway train pulls up, following well-established international norms: passengers wanting to board should wait on either side, in order that passengers wanting to disembark can exit along the centre—with handy footprints just in case you’re not a Chinese-reader. This was taken in Nanjing but you can see similar signs in Shanghai and, I imagine [and especially], in Beijing. I translate the characters on the far left 《文明乘车》 as “Civilised boarding.”

In reality, the people who want to get on crowd around the middle, and start to push their way into the carriage as soon as the doors open. I don’t think this is rudeness on their part—I think it’s just a mindset that has developed over generations in such a vastly-populated country: you’ve got to scramble to the front if you want to get a seat or a good place to lean, and the fact that you can see there is plenty of room in the carriage does little to change this behaviour, despite the best efforts of the government in the lead up to the Olympics.