刚看到A-Mao发的有关女儿在上海实习的帖子，很有意思。 正好接到俺家小子才写的一篇有关乘上海地铁去陆家嘴中国银行实习的见闻，贴上来凑趣。

My experience with the Shanghai Subway system.

A usual day: Usually I get down there around 8:15, let the first train go by because it is usually jam-packed with people, literally jam-packed. When a train is that packed, you’re most likely not breathing fresh oxygen but some recycled CO2 from the persons around you. I can usually manage to get on the second train；train doors close, one stop, I get off, walk up the stairs, which, by the way, are also packed with people, and start my day. Excellent.

Fast forward to today: I get up late -- my fault. Get down to the subway station at around 8:30 and notice immediately that there’s something wrong. The train is standing there；doors open with pools of people swarming around each door. The intercom comes on – there is a problem with the train, please bear with us as we rectify this problem. Those people that are in a hurry, please use above-ground transportation. In Chinese of course. So, I figure – 5 minutes won’t kill me. 5 won’t. 10 will. Ok, ten minutes later, the train is functional and of course people all push and shove their way onto the train. I saw one man push a lady into the closing doors pinning her between them. The doors opened again and I’m sure she wasn’t hurt, but still…the brutality of the usually relatively small-sized Shanghai man during rush hour is quite something to watch. I stand my ground and allow this train to go. The next train comes – I manage to hop on, wait for seemingly endless 30 seconds – why are the doors still open? The intercom comes on yet again: there appears to be an obstruction on the rail, it is being cleared, and then the usual bit about above-ground transportation. I thought to myself, I spent 3 Yuan getting in here, there is no way in hell I’m wasting that and get out and above for “above-ground” transportation. Honeslty, 3 Yuan is about 42 shiny pennies；that’s worth my sweat and time. So, I wait patiently…10 minutes…15…20. I am getting sweaty, smelly and tired, so I step off the train to wait on the platform which is slightly cooler due to wind coming from the opposite side of the platform – yea, the other trains that are operational. I’m waiting, and waiting, and waiting, when all of a sudden, the beeping goes off – the go-ahead sign for the pneumatic doors to hiss shut. I turn and see a stampede of people shoving their way back onto the train. By this time, many more people have joined the original passengers, so being a pacifist, I stand by and watch idly as the train that I managed to board speed off. Well, the good news is…the next train doesn’t take long to arrive. The bad news – instead of sandwiching myself onto the train, I allowe a lady holding her infant baby on. It’s not like I don’t try to get on. I do, but the surge of swinging elbows and momentous strides off the train pushed me back. Indeed, one man’s elbow connected quite well with my chin, slamming me back. So, again, I watched as another train passed. I traded glances with the platform attendant, and he smiled back. The next train, I finally shoved my way on and managed to get to the office at long last. The lady that opened the door for me into the office smirked and said: got stuck too? Haha. I rolled my eyes, “Tell me about it.”