Evelyne&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure Series. Months spent traveling the back roads of China. Short videos with transcripts, captioned photos, articles and critical commentary. The REAL Chinese people you do not know!
Shenzhen
Note: I lived and worked in Shenzhen, 2016-2019. Amazing place!
Introduction and table
Shenzhen had zero metro in 2004 and in only 21 years has 610km of lines. Already the world’s 7th biggest metro system, everywhere I drove around the city, more lines and extensions are being added in every direction. By 2035, it will double to over 1,100km.
Three billion rides a year, safe, you can eat off the floors and even a 20-30km ticket only costs less than 1 euro/USD. 100% people-owned for the citizens. No rapes, no homeless, no drug addicts, no knifings, no pickpockets, no graffiti, no vandalized windows and seats, no one jumping the turnstiles to not pay.
How many other countries can you name that have the vision and capacity to develop its infrastructure so rapidly? Dozens of other cities across China are doing the same thing. You can’t. Only a people-first, communist-socialist economy like China’s can make it happen. Impossible in the Judeo-capitalist system.
The Chinese people own all the public land, banks, insurance companies and tell Baba Beijing what to do. Private Judeo-Western banks and insurance companies own all the land and order what the governments need to do to make them richer and richer, at the expense of the 99%. Not the same thing.
As a comparison, New York’s metro opened in 1904 and only has 399km of lines for USA’s biggest city.
Only three of China’s Top 11 metro systems were started in the 20th century. Look at cities like Chengdu, which opened its system in 2010 – only 15 years ago – and it is the fourth biggest metro in the world. Hangzhou, Zhengzhou and Xi’an also started in the 2010s.
As a comparison, New York’s metro opened in 1904, only has 399km of lines for USA’s biggest city. NYC has not added any new lines or stations since 2017.
When my family lived in Beijing 1990-1997, there was only Line 1, which went east to west and Line 2, which made a circle around Tiananmen Square. Today, it is the biggest metro system in the world and growing.
A couple of years ago, Shenzhen was #5, but has fallen to #7, because the other Chinese cities ahead of it are also expanding their systems like mad.
Even out of the Top 11, tens of other Chinese cities are building out their metro systems like crazy. Changsha, Hunan started building its metro system in 2014 and in only nine years has 208km of lines, surpassing Hong Kong, which started in 1979. Changsha is adding another 160km. Like Shenzhen‘s and Hong Kong’s, you can eat off the floors and don’t get stabbed, beaten or raped.
Washington, DC started building its system in 1976, has 209km and seems to not be expanding into new neighborhoods. All metro systems in China are people-owned and very inexpensive.
Moscow is the only non-Chinese city in the Global Top 12.
China has a brilliant method to get citizens to accept having metro lines and stations built that cause them to move to nearby residences. The people-owned metro companies offer them interest-bearing, preferred metro bonds at discounted rates, while making sure the value of their property goes into a new place in the area.
The national railway company does the same thing: specially priced railroad bonds for having to move out of the direction of the tracks being laid.
It’s a wonderful win-win system that benefits everyone.
Top 12 global metro systems
| City | Country | Name | Service | Last | Stations | Lines | System length | Annual ridership | |
| opened | expanded | (millions) | |||||||
| Beijing |
|
Beijing Subway[72] | 1971[Nb 15] | 2025[73] | 424[74][Nb 16] | 29 | 879 km (546 mi)[77][Nb 17] | 3,621.3 (2024)[R 19][Nb 18] | |
| Shanghai |
|
Shanghai Metro | 1993[128] | 2025[129] | 410[Nb 31] | 19 | 809.67 km (503.11 mi)[130][Nb 32] | 3,773.8 (2024)[R 19][Nb 33] | |
| Guangzhou |
|
Guangzhou Metro[Nb 26][Nb 24] | 1997 | 2025[92] | 314 [Nb 27] | 18[Nb 28][Nb 24] | 768.4 km (477.5 mi)[93] | 3,255.0 (2024)[R 19] | |
| Chengdu |
|
Chengdu Metro | 2010 | 2025[83] | 332[Nb 22] | 15 | 663.93 km (412.55 mi)[84] | 2,209.0 (2024)[R 19] | |
| Shenzhen |
|
Shenzhen Metro | 2004 | 2025[133] | 324[Nb 34] | 17 | 609.6 km (378.8 mi) | 3,101.9 (2024)[R 19] | |
| Chongqing |
|
Chongqing Rail Transit | 2004 | 2025 | 263[Nb 23] | 12 | 560.04 km (347.99 mi)[85] | 1,416.5 (2024)[R 19] | |
| Nanjing |
|
Nanjing Metro[117] | 2005 | 2025[118] | 228[119] | 14 | 556.69 km (345.91 mi)[120] | 1,093.5 (2024)[R 19] | |
| Moscow |
|
Moscow Metro[359] | 1935 | 2025 | 236[Nb 81] | 16 | 535.5 km (332.7 mi) | 2,288.5 (2023)[360] | |
| Wuhan |
|
Wuhan Metro | 2004 | 2024[142] | 312[Nb 35] | 12 | 518.1 km (321.9 mi)[142] | 1,467.0 (2024)[R 19] | |
| Hangzhou |
|
Hangzhou Metro[96] | 2012 | 2025[97] | 254[Nb 29] | 12 | 516.2 km (320.8 mi)[98] | 1,469.8 (2024)[R 19] | |
| Zhengzhou |
|
Zhengzhou Metro | 2013[150] | 2024[151] | 233[Nb 38] | 13 | 449.81 km (279.50 mi) | 697.2 (2024)[R 19] | |
| Xi’an |
|
Xi’an Metro | 2011 | 2024[147] | 232[Nb 36] | 12 | 402.3 km (250.0 mi)[R 22][Nb 37] | 1,406.4 (2024)[R 19] |
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metro_systems
Photos
Shenzhen’s metro inside and out
#1: this is a recent map of Shenzhen’s metro system, posted inside the train cars. Remember, this map was blank only 21 years ago.
#2a-2b: all metro systems in China are so clean you can eat off the floors. Granite-tiled floors are beautiful and will last a century. Most people pay for each ticket individually, using WeChat or Alipay on their phones. There are also metro cards you can charge up, which Evelyne and I use, or individual tokens from machines.
#3: a huge nexus metro station, where 2-4 lines converge. You can see the interior decoration is beautiful and not done cheaply. Some stations are so big, they are like small towns. This photo from the internet was taken during Chinese New Year (big red lozenge 春 = chun = Spring Festival), which is the biggest mass movement of people in human history – year after year.
#4: Shenzhen’s metro trains run on electricity feed up from the tracks. Photo grabbed from the internet.
#5: most stations have the line coming and going on the same platform, which is very convenient. Just verify your station on the line maps above each side, to make sure you are going in the right direction. Do we sometimes mess up? Yes!
#6: clean, safe, orderly, quiet and peaceful. Not the case for many Judeo-Western metro systems.
Metro security guards on every train
#7: Shenzhen metro riders feel safe and secure. Every train has at least two security guards. They are trained in first aid, emergencies, help oldsters and can take down a drunk guy if needed. At each stop, they step off to survey the situation, making sure all the passengers get inside safely. This is above and beyond station guards at all the bigger stops. An average ride costs $/euro 0.50-1.00.
People watching on the metro
#8a-8b: Chinese love to ham it up for photos, including children. The victory/peace sign is absolutely de rigueur.
This young girl on the Shenzhen metro is dressed for floor dancing or gymnastic classes. She is sporting a big ribbon in her pulled up hair and has really snazzy sports shoes. Mom, standing next to her is totally non-plussed.
#9: does this rather timid young woman know what her T-shirt is saying repetitively?
FUCK OFF FUCK OFF FUCK OFF FUCK OFF
In Changsha, Hunan, I missed taking a photo of another young woman sporting a T-shirt that said in big letters,
FUCK OFF YOU FUCKING FUCK!
Glad I snagged this one. I sure would not wear them in the USA, where I could get beaten up, or shot!
Keeping the metro system spick and span takes resolve, planning and hard work
#10a-10d: why is Shenzhen‘s metro system spotless? Because it is kept clean by many sanitation workers who are accountable for it cleanliness. At most stops, you can see them working hard. No graffiti, no garbage, no filth. You can eat off the floors. The last photo shows one of these workers taking a well-deserved breather. I walk up and thank all of them for their wonderful service! They beam with pride.
Manned toilets and breast-feeding stations
#11a-11b: need to go the bathroom in the Shenzhen Metro? No problem, free, public toilets are available. Kept clean by a sanitation worker and they can alert security if there are any incidents. Need to change your baby’s diapers or want some privacy while you breastfeed? No problem. Shenzhen Metro has stations just for that. Compare this to Paris, where women are being raped in broad daylight, children knifed, and New York, where trains are full of feces, vomit and violent drug addicts.
#12: Hong Kong’s metro is clean and safe, but expensive, especially for its many poor citizens. Why?
It is for profit, so the investors are the priority over the people.
My ticket from the Shenzhen border to my HK hotel cost almost USD7. 00. The same distance in Shenzhen costs USD0.80, almost 1/9th the cost.
With millions of rides a day, that’s a huge economic benefit for the people.
#13: Shenzhen is doubling its metro system by 2035, so lines are being put in everywhere you turn. There is a line going in behind the green construction barrier above.
#14: This is a small part of Shenzhen on Baidu Maps. Each one of those red symbols represents a construction project. We are that blue dot riding Metro Line 2.
In the Judeo-West it’s “RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! CHINA! CHINA! CHINA!”, and cities and countries are falling apart, all being carefully planned and implemented by the Master Race to destroy White Christian civilization, sad to say.
In China, it’s “PEOPLE-OWNED INFRASTRUCTURE! INFRASTRUCTURE! INFRASTRUCTURE!”, so the citizens prosper and have an ever-increasing quality of life.
Further study
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Evelyne&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure Series. Months spent traveling the back roads of China. Short videos with transcripts, captioned photos, articles and critical commentary. The REAL Chinese people you do not know!
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