Beijing Pedway

Engineer:     "This subway system will be awesome!"
Supervisor:  "Yes, but it needs more stops"
Engineer:     "There's no money to build extra stops"
Supervisor:  "Why don't we give each stop, like, 6 exits?"
Engineer:     "Oh, and we'll put each exit like 500 meters from the actual train platform?"
Supervisor:  "Yeah, that way, more people will be near a subway entrance"
Engineer:     "Won't people have to spend lots of time walking underground?"
Supervisor   "Yes!"
Engineer:     "Also, subway transfers will require even more walking!"
Supervisor   "Yes!"
Engineer:     "OK great.  We'll build it!"

Beijing's subway system is awesome.  It is extensive, cheap, and quiet.  The trains come very frequently.  It bears almost no resemblance to Chicago's El.

On certain trips, though, you might find yourself walking for 20 minutes and climbing 6 flights of stairs.  This is because making a transfer, or finding your exit (to return to the surface of the earth), can require a ridiculous amount of walking.

For a long time, I felt like I was being lied to.  "This is not an entrance to the subway," I thought, "This is just an entrance to an underground tunnel, far away from the subway!"

But then I realized that the walk-underground thing is actually a pretty cool idea.

It's almost like the subway is actually a subway-pedway hybrid.  The extensive underground pedestrian tunnels let you travel to the train platform while being protected from the elements.  On a hot, sunny day like today, that means a lot.