Gee, Thanks: US News Channel Picks on Beijing Subway Commute in Video
We thought the intern season would be over by now at newsgathering offices around Beijing, but apparently not.
ABC News' Bob Woodruff decided to take on the Beijing Subway during a normal morning commute. In the one-minute, 44-second video, soundtracked by music that was apparently ripped straight from a Charlie Chan movie, Woodruff gets on at the notoriously crowded Tiantongyuan North station on Line 5.
"I feel like a cow getting into the corral," he says, as he enters the crowd control barriers that funnel passengers towards escalators and the security check. "This is fun ... not," he adds.
Woodruff proceeds down to the track, then is caught momentarily in security doors on the subway platform, which close as he tries to board a crowded car.
"You can see that I was actually stuck, right between those two doors," he notes. "See? I almost got squished!" Did you now, Bob?
The piece is dopey, but we give Woodruff credit for one thing: he pronounces Beijing correctly. A Mandarin speaker, Woodruff says Beijing with the j as in "jump," not a French j as in bonjour. Other television journalists please make a note of it.
Bob, you're getting on the subway with no earbuds, no smartphone, nothing to read? Then you deserve the hellacious ride you got.
Click here for the video in case you have 1:44 that you never want back.
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Email: stevenschwankert@thebeijinger.com
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Photo: ABC News
