The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.
-Ezra Pound, "In a Station of the Metro" (1884)
To trace the changes of Beijing from a national to a truly international city, one need look no farther than the nearest subway station. When Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympic games in 2001, the city had a mere two subway lines. Today, there are 16. And the number is growing. The city's system provides transportation to just about any corner of Beijing you could want to visit. This map illustrates this explosion perfectly.
The city's subway has been linked rhetorically and symbolically to the country's progress toward creating a modernized state with a powerful and effective mass transit system. It has been evoked in national campaigns as a part of Xi Jinping's "China Dream" (中国梦) program. In many ways, the subway is emblematic of China's push toward global superpower status.
But beyond this status as a symbol of China's progress, and object of national pride and achievement, the subway is a place of fairly mundane daily realities. Riding the rails in Beijing is part of the Beijing experience. Getting caught trying to climb the stairwell at the Line 4/6 transfer at Ping'anli Station at rush hour may be THE quintessential Beijing experience. It looks like this:
It's a well worn ritual. The descent into the station. The echos of the PA system annoucing the arrival and departure of incoming/outgoing trains. The thunder of approaching cars. The rush hot air blown up as the train arrives. The hissing of opening doors. The jam of people on the escalator exiting the station. The blinding light as the escaltor ascends from the station to the street above. Sure, there are subway systems all over the world. And the Beijing system is no different than many of them (though maybe a bit newer). But something about the subway seems so integral to what the city is and what it's becoming as it continues to build, develop, cosmopolitanize. There's something about riding the rails at rush hour with the rest of the city that feels important to knowing what contemporary Beijing is about.
I'm getting settled here in the city, so hopefully something a little more substantive will come soon. Stay tuned.