Safety first: please hold the hand rail

Safety and big cities: how does Beijing approach this tricky issue? One thing is sure, the authorities do not take their responsibility to keep their citizens safe lightly. Well, at least the government makes sure the message is hard to miss - safety is a very important and serious issue and the government is doing everything to keep people safe. You see and hear it everywhere. The Subway is a particularly good place to observe safety measures. From entrance to escalator and from platform to metro: the warning signs, protocols, and messages follow you everywhere you go.

Screen doors are quite common at metro platforms these days, the security checks at every entrance of Beijing subway stations make sense in theory - how they are in practice is something else -, but then there are certain measures that might seem a little.. odd.

I'm a fan in particular of the "elevator safety" videos they show on the metro. The main character is a sheep/rabbit-like creature, which takes you on a ride on escalators and elevators. You can tell from the start of each video it is going to be a bumpy ride.. I wasn't on the metro long enough to see how many episodes are included in the elevator safety series, but there are at least eight. Each episode is more amazing than the other. In the videos we see our sheep-rabbit friend happily enter an elevator or ride an escalator. At the start everything seems fine, but then comes the unfortunate event. On the elevator, our little friend pushes too many buttons and gets stuck. On the escalator misfortune clearly also looms around the corner – beware not to get hit by a cart on your way down or to smash your head into a wall on the way up – sadly, this does happen to our little sheep-rabbit..

Although one can certainly appreciate the efforts to keep places safe, the way safety protocols in Beijing are handled can sometimes leave you wondering. In numbers, they have certainly got the security scans at entrances covered. There are usually about four to five employees present at one security check. More often than not, though, the safety checks mainly serve to keep up appearances. After you pass the gate with sensors, one of the staff members makes some quick hand gestures, as if searching you, after which you are free to go. Many times the staff seems more busy with chatting or writing what must be very important stuff, than checking if you might be carrying any dangerous goods. On the upside: the checks will not cost you much time, it's almost like they're not even there ;)

At each subway escalator you will hear safety messages, repeated over and over again. However, occasionally the automatic messages somehow aren’t working. This is easily solved though, by placing one of the many subway employees at the bottom of the escalator with a voice amplifier. This way you will always be kindly reminded to “please stand firm and hold the handrail”.