Home 禄 Opinion 禄 Chinese Views
Holiday crowds, if kept in order, move along reasonably
Print Edition
It鈥檚 that time of year again, when hundreds of millions of Chinese hit the road for family unions during the Spring Festival, which falls next week this year. Cars crawl, trains prostrate and crowds swell.
It took a friend of mine six hours to drive from Shanghai to his hometown Yangzhou on Tuesday afternoon. The trip usually takes three hours. Unsurprisingly, he was stuck in a traffic jam on the Beijing-Shanghai Highway, crammed with cars heading outside Shanghai for the most important family union in a year for the average Chinese.
How was the situation at railway stations? On my way to work yesterday morning, I stopped to check out the Hongqiao Railway Station, the new railway transportation hub of Shanghai, and found crowds of passengers standing in long, zigzag lines.
No chafing, no elbowing
But to my surprise, there was no chafing or elbowing, and foot traffic was relatively fast.
The railway station is so structured that most passengers who arrive by Metro will have to climb up two floors to reach the railway checkpoints. To prevent the checkpoints from being overcrowded, a couple of armed police stopped passengers at ground zero yesterday, allowing them to ascend the escalators only in groups. A few passengers were hot-tempered and tried to ignore police regulation, only to be blocked by the young policemen who were both strict and smiling.
Had there been no armed police around to keep order, the escalators would most likely have been paralyzed by the uncontrolled crowds, the way a highway was paralyzed by cars running wild.
Where there鈥檚 regulation, there鈥檚 speed and there鈥檚 security. By comparison, in a fast-food restaurant at ground zero of the railway station, quite a few patrons 鈥 many of whom were apparently train passengers 鈥 cut the lines and elbowed each other in order to be served first.
It takes time for crowds in China to behave well, but step by step, there鈥檚 progress. Setbacks are abundant, of course, but let鈥檚 take heart and salute the couple of young armed police who, with their smiles and skill, made thousands of passengers move 鈥 at a reasonably fast pace.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
