The Chinese National Museum

As I briefly mentioned in my last post about Labor Day here in China, I had last Friday off in honor of the holiday. Since traveling in China during national holidays seems to more of a lesson futility due to the large crowds of tourists everywhere, I decided to stay in Beijing and visit some places I wanted to see before I leave. Included on that list, was the newly-reopened Chinese National Museum (中国国家博物馆).

After undergoing over three years of renovations, the National Museum recently re-opened after years of arguing and revisions. Historically, the current site of the National Museum was home to two separate museums, the Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution; they were combined in 2003 to make up the Chinese National Museum. In an effort to boost China's (specifically, Beijing's) international standing, the Chinese government decided it was time to renovate and bring the museum up to par (or at least, what they felt like was up to par).

The original plan was to have the museum completely redone, renovated and opened for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, however due to years of arguing and disagreement over the museum's content and endless revisions on the interior design, was not finished in time. Nor was it finished in time for it's second hoped-for end date, which was supposed to coincide the 60th Anniversary of Communist rule on October 1, 2009. Finally, the National Museum reopened just this past March after years and years of delay.

Since 2008, China's museums have gradually begun waiving their entrance fee, in hopes of attracting more visitors. While I appreciate free museum admission as much as anyone, in the case of the National Museum, this seems to have backfired.

Running of the Cabs

When we arrived at Beijing Capital Airport, my parents and I decided that taking a cab would be the best way to get into the city, so we get in line at the taxi stand. Surprisingly, the line actually resembled a line. However, this orderliness would not last long.

Let me (try to) explain how their taxi queue system worked. First of all, there are two lines of people at the taxi queue. The cabs came in from a special entrance just for cabs and stop in pre-designated spots in the middle of the road. Then, after there a sufficient number of cabs (as determined by the officer manning the taxi queue) parked, the officer waves his hand at one of the two lines and lets a certain number of people walk up to grab a cab. Sounds simple enough, right?

Wrong.

As soon as that officer waves his hand, it's like mass pandemonium breaks out. If you're just a bit slower, because maybe your bags are heavier, they'll just run past you, even if they were 10 people behind you. It's basically like musical chairs, but with cabs and luggage. Not to mention there is NO actual shortage of cabs, unlike in musical chairs.
 
 Next time, if I need to take a cab from Beijing, I'm stretching before hand. And consider this a warning if you ever want to come to Beijing and plan on taking a cab from the airport.

See how the cab on the right is parked in the middle of the road?

Picture courtesy of www.tour-beijing.com

Please form a queue here---or not..

 On the last day of our tour, the tour guide brought up a point about line etiquette (or the lack there of) in China that had never crossed my mind. In short, she made the point that, culturally, part of the reason people often cut lines in China is due to the country's history of famine and poverty. Although she doesn't believe that excuses their behavior, it does bring up an interesting point that lines are a product of prosperity.

As the tour guide pointed out, not so long ago, people in mainland China needed to fight just to have food on the table. Food and supplies were scarce and people had to fight with everyone who also needed food and supplies when it was available. It was first come, first served. If the supplies ran out, then too bad for you. In those times, people couldn't afford to be polite and wait in line because if they were, it's likely they'd receive either very little or even nothing at all. When you're that poor and in need of basic supplies, survival overwhelmingly beats out politeness.

Nowadays, for most people getting food and basic supplies isn't a problem anymore. Yet, that mentality about lines still seems to permeate.

Here in China, lines seem to merely a formality for the most part. "Lines" often instead take the form of a massive crowd or an uneven blob of people gathered around a specific desk, machine, person, etc. And even if a line (or a queue, as the British would say) exists, line cutting is very prevalent and considered completely normal. In fact, in order to be helped in a timely matter, you often have to push yourself to the front of the line.

On the flip side, Americans, if nothing else, are very good at forming lines, even when there isn't a sign or personnel to tell you to form a line. For instance, when waiting for the subway in New York, people often form lines just to board the train, and wait patiently for people to get off the train first before boarding in a orderly fashion.*  In this instance, there's no fear that you won't able to board the train so people can afford to be patient and wait in a line to board.

For the most part, in the United States, we can afford to wait in lines. Aside from tickets to a big concert or perhaps some big Black Friday sale items, things are not going to run out and we can always find somewhere to obtain the necessities. The United States and Americans are prosperous enough to not have to worry about running out of food and basic necessities.

Of course, China's history of famine doesn't completely excuse there lack of line etiquette, particularly with the younger generation who mostly, if not completely, grew up as China has become increasingly prosperous. But it does help me understand a little bit about where a lot of people here are coming from.

Lastly, it must be noted that this post is just a generalization of lines in the US and China. There are plenty of places in the US where people have problems forming lines and plenty of instances in China in which I have seen people wait in an orderly line.

That's all for now. Time to check to see if my clothes actually dried in the dryer this time.

*Note: New York subways during rush hour are a totally different game, especially on the 4/5/6 trains.