I’ve been traveling on Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) since 1985. Most days nothing much happens, but once in a while there are “incidents” while most days involve dealing with various idiosyncrasies.
Some of most common include: Fainting (mainly young women who can’t stand the crush in the morning because they skipped breakfast); Fighting (usually men in their 30s, who can’t stand being so close to each other in the crush, usually fights are continued on the platform, with mostly finger wagging and shouting, no blows, no kung fu); Making-up (always seated young women, who are amazingly dexterous as they apply lip or eye-liner on a speeding train or use he eyelash curling machine much to the squirming of onlookers); Finger nail clipping (usually old folks, or mid-aged women, avoiding the flying nails is an art); Newspaper reading (done by everyone, as morning papers are tabloid size and free, most people try to read their papers in crushingly impossible situations, even if it means resting the paper on someone, even on other people’s heads); Reading and walking (mostly young office people, because their stingy bosses wont let them read the newspaper at work, the practice causes the mass slowing of the stream of crush hour people trying to exit the station); Pole leaning (mostly practised by workmen and mid-aged women, who for some read become very tired when entering the train and can’t seem to be able to stand up. Pole leaning usually leads to mass stumblings because passengers have nothing to hold on to); Not moving to the middle of the carriage (most people, due to the unconfirmed belief that the train doors will close before you have time to get out of the train); Please hold the hand rail (is the warning given by the driver, after the train shrieks to a juddering halt. Because of the pole leaners, most people, by then, are five feet from where they were originally standing); Preparing to leave the train, well before it has reached the station (this annoying habit, practiced by all ages, produces significant levels of anxiety as already crushed people try to move to accomodate the panicking exiting passenger). One event that I have been unable to witness, but which my wife says she saw once on the KCR, is underarm deodorant spraying! Apparently, the KCR traveller is more tolerant than MTR patrons.
And finally, my personal favourite. I was standing in the train chewing gum when I suddenly coughed, causing the gum to exit before its time. The gum landed on the suit jacket of the guy sitting in front of me. After an apology, I tried picking the gum off his jacket, but it started rolling down. Fortunately, I managed to catch up with it, and, as the train had arrived at my station, I was able to leave the scene quickly, with the offending gum between my fingers (after all where else could I put the damned thing?).
The video is something that I’ve always wanted to do – tape an exit from the MTR. I was going to tape the people, to give a flavour of the typical user, but I thought it would be intrusive in a carriage where people could not exit, and therefore had no choice when being filmed. So I filmed their feet instead. The tape is sped up to reflect the fact that most people are very anxious to exit the MTR as quickly as they can. The music, I think, reflects this urge. Go!
Although most major cities have some form of non-contact cash payment card system, Hong Kong’s Octopus system has been at the forefront of the cashless revolution. The cards were introduced for the MTR, and were adapted for the KCR and buses. Eventually, the cards’ use was extended to convenience stores and other retailers (McDonald’s etc). Topping up of the cash on the cards can be done automatically, via an agreement with the credit card companies. The draw back of the card is that women tend to keep their cards in their bags, and place the bag over the reader as they enter the turnstile. Unfortunately, this does not always work, because the distance is too great. This means that these lazy women have to shuffle their handbags around until contact is made. This delays the smooth flow of traffic through the turnstiles. My advice here is to avoid queuing behind women with big handbags when trying to get through the turnstiles. Of course this assumes that you can even get to the turnstile, because Hong Kong people are not particularly good at queuing. Generally, they queue like they drive, recklessly, and with no regard for anyone around them. Patience is the only advice I can give regarding queuing.
However, I can offer a couple of useful tips for specific journeys on the MTR, which can save the time spent wrestling with the crowds at the turnstiles. First, if there are no trains to Kowloon at the platforms in Central, the train will always arrive at platform one (the platform to the left). Even if everyone is queuing to the right, turn left when you come down the escalator. Second, if you are traveling to the end of the Tuen Wan line (the longest line in the system) from Admiralty, take the train to Central, and get a seat when everyone exits at Central. The train will then return to Admiralty and onwards to Tuen Wan, with no need to change trains. The extra minutes wait are worth it. Lastly, when traveling in the rush hour to Central from Kowloon Tong and beyond, change trains at Prince Edward (by descending the stairs), rather than at Mongkok, which is always overcrowded, and means waiting at least for two trains to arrive before being able to enter.
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