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That shove on the subway? It was intentional

people pushers.jpg Rather than bother with the headache of adding a few more subway carriages, Shanghai Metro has decided to hire people to personally shove you inside one. Because when you live in the most populous country on earth, sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands: literally.

China Daily reports that Shanghai is dealing with its massive subway congestion Japanese-style: utilizing professional people-pushers to manage crowd control. In an attempt to reduce train delays and keep the commute flowing, these professional people-pushers give you that extra shove to make sure those doors close behind you (since your daily commute shouldn't look like this):

Subway Ride Gone Wrong.jpg

Daily commuter Liao Yumei tells China Daily: “You have to be really rude and brutal to cram yourself into the carriage.” With people-pushers in the mix, now someone else can do your dirty work.

However, pushing and shoving those unsuspecting commuters ain't a walk in the park. A professional shover states: "It's like trying to close an overfilled suitcase. I sweat so much that my shirt gets soaked."

Yeah... we are now officially hoofing it to work. Whether it's a professional push, or just an amateur shove, the whole ordeal makes traveling on foot the new way to go.

In other metro news, here is a sneak peek at the new metro mascot. Sonic the Hedgehog on roller skates? It's fast, it's small, it kinda makes sense...as much as Haibao does anyway.

shanghaimetromascot.JPG

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Comments [rss]

  • nanheyangrouchuan

    Ok, which Chinese city is the most populous, Shanghai or Chongqing? Official or actual numbers? Bar trivia question and I locked horns with the quiz person.

  • BBC1

    I believe they won't be the first, as the Tokyo subway also employ people to do that.

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