The Chinese have this weird thing for queuing ; basically what the rest of the world would do – – line up in an orderly fashion and wait for your turn – – the Chinese tend to just push their way forward, ignore everyone around them, and force their way to the front. It’s one of my least favorite aspects of staying here.
For the first time ever, while waiting in line for picking up a train ticket, a guy who was trying to cut the line and push his way forward was yelled at by not one, but two different people who were patiently waiting their turns! One person was in front of me the other was behind, one was male and the other female.
Now I couldn’t grasp their entire conversation as my command of the Mandarin language is still rather pedantic, but a few well placed “你不可以! “s and” 票” s combined with prolific yelling was all I really needed to hear. After a minute or so of being rebuked, the line cutter left ostensibly to wait in line or try his luck cutting another line.
Oh, I forgot to mention, there were only five of us in line at the time and it took all of six minutes for me to get my ticket. The nerve of some people!
After the line cutter left I got the attention of the man in front of me and offered my most heartfelt 谢谢. He responded with a look of scorn aimed at the line cutter and a “I cannot believe that shit” head shake.
Score one for civility!
Sounds like it ended up being a good experience and you can still have faith in mankind!