Socialization 101

There is an underlying orderliness to this city that’s not initially apparent.

Taipei has over 2.6 million people jammed into 105 square miles (24,761 people per square mile) and I can’t remember seeing a stray piece of garbage anywhere. In main boulevards or back alleys. Buses, subways or taxis. Seattle has 580,000 people spread out over 91 square miles (6,373 people per square mile) and there’s litter floating around just about everywhere. Strangest part – in Taipei I have the hardest time finding a garbage can – in starbucks, in my school, along the street, or in subways. Every shop gives you a receipt, and there’s always a food wrapper, and I have to carry them to my hotel to throw them away because there’s never a garbage can when I need one. What does everyone else do with there’s?

There are escalators all over the city – in the subways, department stores, major hotels, and large office buildings. And on every single one of them, everyone either stands in place on the right hand side or walks on the left hand side. In the middle of rush hour (which goes on for several hours) a human flood of people pour out of each subway car and pool by the bottom of the escalator waiting their turn to hitch a ride on the right hand side. If you are willing to walk it (up or down as the case may be), the left side is always in non-stop motion. I’m in that subway system multiple times a day, every day and only twice in two weeks have I ever encountered anyone standing still on the left hand side. Once was an elderly lady with a cane in her right hand so she had to move to the left to hold on. Without a word and instantaneously, the right hand side of her step was left vacant so that the flow of left hand traffic could move around her. The other time was me groping around in my pocket for my subway card. No one said anything and no one cleared a right away around me – and I got the message loud and clear never to do that again.

The longer I’m here I begin to notice the constant reminders of proper behavior – mostly having to do with hygiene and the public good. Hand sanitizers right as you walk through the main doors of most major buildings. Huge, attention grabbing signs depicting the right way to cough, blow your nose, and even talk to someone in the subway. On-going announcements of the $7500 fine for eating, drinking, chewing gum or beattlenuts in the subway system. Most memorable will always be the loudspeaker announcement as my plane was landing in Taipei. We were informed that drug trafficking is a serious offence subject to capital punishment. (You should have seen how the flight attendant pantomimed that …..…. Just kidding about the pantomime!)

p.s.

On occasion, like yesterday, I may post two entries on the same day. However, when you log onto the blog, you only see the most recent entry. So if you want to squeeze all the juice out of this blog, be sure check the index to make sure you didn’t miss one.