Stories in the subway station

I was a little surprised...

I was born and grew up in Tianjin until I was 14, then came to Australia and lived here for almost 11 years. I appreciate some aspects of living in a western country but I still love my motherland China.
I went to Shanghai for the first time in Oct this year, I thought people would more civilised here as there are far more westerners here and the standard of living is high.
I was expecting a little more respect when I was using the subway system, it is quite clean and the tickets look neat! But as soon as the train pulled into a stop, BEFORE the passengers could get off the train, the group of passengers awaiting outside the doors start to push in! They were blocking the whole width of the doors and not leaving much room for the passengers who need to get off. Even though there are signs on the floor saying "off first, on then" and occasionally there were staff holding a loud speaker telling people to give room for passengers to align first, people still rush in. I don't like that but I think they've got a reason, because these doors close after a period of time, (unlike the trains in Sydney, they close only when everyone got on the train), if they don't get on, they'd miss out!
So next time you are using the subway in Shanghai, push your way through! Just watch out for children and elderly.

Jumping the queue

Jumping the queue is so common but I was expecting this.
That day in Shanghai subway station, ticket window, a young white guy was trying to buy a monthly ticket. He was being served at the window and I was standing behind him, 0.5m apart waiting patiently. He speaks a bit mandarin and was having some trouble explaining to the girl in the ticket window what he wanted.
Suddenly a 30 sth year old lady appeared behind me and quickly made her way to the ticket window, standing next to the white guy. I'm sure she didn't know him, she helped him to get what he wanted, then she bought her ticket BEFORE me!

When she's helping out, that's good, but when she's jumping the queue and didn't look ashamed, that's not good! I was annoyed because if she can speak good English, she must be highly educated, but why do highly educated people jump the queue?????