China’s Top 10 Worst Train Manners: “2. Defecating in Train”

Chinese subway goers have ranked the most unforgivable breaches of etiquette they are forced to endure on the nation’s trains, including such pearls of wisdom as “not defecating in the train” and “not allowing children to go to the toilet on the floor.”

The ranking of “most unforgiveable subway manners” was based on a survey of 894 Chinese undertaken by a subway operator and local paper in the Chinese metropolis of Tianjin – it runs as follows:

1. Spitting

2. Defecating in the train

3. Smoking in the carriage or station

4. Crowding onto the train without queuing

5. Taking things which stink onto the train

6. Lying across several seats

7. Taking pets onto the train

8. Spitting gum onto the train

9. Tossing trash onto the floor

10. Tossing trash onto the tracks

They also selected some of the “best manners” to uphold:

1. Yielding seats to the aged, infirm or pregnant

2. Waiting for people to get off the train before rushing onto it

3. Putting discarded trash in the bins

4. Not letting children defecate in the train

5. Not taking highly inflammable, explosive or radioactive materials onto the train

With subway etiquette in other countries typically concerned with the finer points of seating priority, mobile phone usage and not listening to loud music, the contrast with China’s preoccupation with the basics of queuing and not spitting or defecating in the train could not be more severe: