人山人海 ren shan ren hai

Last summer my niece taught me the phrase "ren shan ren hai" which translates literally "people mountain people sea" and means:  really really really...crowded.

I've been taking the subway to work and this phrase describes the scene well.  It is jaw dropping, the numbers of human beings commuting underground here.  Streams and streams of people heading for work, walking fast, climbing stairs, up and down, moving moving moving, all underground.  Vast expanses of tiled subway halls and platforms just filled with humans moving.  The sheer numbers, said to be over 7 million on a busy day system-wide, are staggering and being among them is like nothing I've experienced.

One of the days I went down to the platform and it was already completely full.    There was barely room to queue.   The train pulled up and it was already well beyond capacity.  100s of people got off and even more got on.  Uniformed subway or law enforcement personnel (or both?) shouted.  I was moved toward the train but the lines stopped when I was about four people from the doors.  I wanted to give up like I saw others doing as the neared the bottom of the stairs and the platform.  Many people took one look at the scene and reversed their course, heading back up the stairs.  But for me it was too late; there was no way back out.  There were too many people squeezed between me and those stairs now.  The next train came and the throngs of people moved forward again.  I was on the train but feared that I'd get pushed so far inside I'd not be able to get off in my only two stops.  I maintained my position and moved forward to be in line for the doors.  There was no possible way anyone could fall over, we were squashed so tightly together.  People avoid eye contact; look down; glaze over.  The train stopped and I got off, found myself up the stairs and up the escalator where I had to choose among several directions for the exits.  I chose the nearest one knowing it was not the one closest to my office.  Knowing I'd be popping up the wrong gopher hole.  I just had to get above ground, I didn't care if I had to walk another couple of blocks once  I did so.  Then I was up.  Whew.  Wow.  Beijing subways at rush hour.  Not for the faint of heart, for sure.