With a little pushing and shoving, many Beijingers were made to queue up at bus and subway stops yesterday. Hundreds of volunteers at 345 of the thousands of bus-stops in Beijing tried to get everybody in line, hoping that by August next year, when Beijing organizes the Olympic Games, the bad habit of queue-jumping will have been replaced by an orderly line-up.
Starting yesterday, every month on the 11th, Beijing will have its Queuing Day. The 11th was chosen because “1-1” looks like two people lining up.
The bad habit of elbowing yourself to the front is a relic of a poor peasant society with too many people. It's a survival tactic which is no longer necessary. In the past, when many things were rationed, it was important to get ahead of everybody else or you could end up going home empty handed. But the spectacle of 20 people fighting to get on a bus with 30 seats is rather stupid.
It will still take some time before the civilized habit of lining up will become a natural behavior. Once the volunteers had left, the pushing and shoving started again. Luckily, there are still many queuing days before August 2008.
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