Well, beijing is not always noisy. You just need to pick the right time.

When I walk my dog at around 5 a.m., it's quite peaceful, with birds singing accompanied by crickets and the sound of clapping by leaves from time to time.

I'd like prominent qr codes posted on all vehicles (and a place to report them to) so that i can scan and shame the idiot drivers that regularly disregard traffic rules in this city

Also online ticket sales have been suspended so your only option if you intend on going is show up and hope they decide to let you in

Confirmed, event has been declared free from here on out and electronic refunds are allegedly being issued to one and all. 

This should minimize complaints people have about free samples, but probably not going to much about the lines. 

Those intending to rock up and enter for free should be warned that there is an attendance cap and they reached the limit shortly after the noon hour yesterday, meaning those without pre-sale tix were turned away.

Steven Schwankert wrote:

Beijing's Subway is better than the London Underground? That is the most charitable assessment of the Beijing Subway ever. 

The London Underground has serious issues when it comes to running on time, having frequent trains, and having engineering works get in the way, while the Beijing Subway barely breaks or is delayed. I think that makes a huge difference.

I completely disagree with accessibility for Paris and Tokyo.

For Paris, a lot of stations got safety doors, not only the line 14 (with automatic opening doors then). It's also not only in French, maybe some lines but most of the touristic lines have different languages (and honestly, it's so easy that you don't even need to listen). The station sign is always the same everywhere, and there are more lifts than in Beijing (plus, unlike Beijing, except for station St Lazarre with the RER E, station are not that deep so taking stairs doesn't mean 100 steps...). Lines are always built close to each other so you don't need to walk that much (the longest is only at 1 station only, because you have 8 different lines, and even there, it's still shorter than most of the connections in Beijing). As for the exit doors, it's automatic almost everywhere, so not heavy at all.

As for Tokyo, anyone who's been there will know how messy it is with different companies in charge of different lines.

Excellent Zappa reference

britomart wrote:

How about including ease of transfer between lines as a factor in this analysis? I've not been particularly impressed with that here on BJ's subway system.

yeah that's the beijing system's biggest foible -- long transfer times