[karajorma]

I've been to a couple of Chinese restaurants. The food is pretty good over here. Rather different from the Chinese food you get at home though cause that's mostly based on Cantonese style and I'm about a thousand miles from there.

[StarSlayer]

Speaking of British folk in foreign lands...

http://www.thevine.com.au/news/articles/greek-woman-'sets-fire-to-amorous-british-tourist'.aspx

[Mongoose]

As much as that makes me cross my legs and wince, good on her.

[karajorma]

I fully agree with that.

Anyone drunk enough not to take the fact that his genitals were now highly flammable plus the fact that someone he was molesting was holding a lighter as enough of a reason to stop acting like a twat really deserves to Darwin Award himself out of the future gene pool.

[Wild Fragaria]

I just learned that you've gone to China and wanted to wish you luck.  Have fun learning Mandarin.

[karajorma]

Well there's no better way to force you to learn to swim than to jump into the deep end of the pool.

I'm learning to read it pretty quickly actually. All the place names are in Chinese and English so I can pick up the characters just by looking for the difference in spelling between two similar places. Gives me something to do on the subway anyway.

[Colonol Dekker]

I hope you pick up quick on the subway. . .
 
Wait, did you say the names are in english too? Oh. . . That takes the fun out of it. Lol.

[karajorma]

I don't think I'd be brave enough to use the subway if the writing wasn't also in English. I've puzzled out enough to be able to use it now but back when I started it would have been quite daunting. What's really funny is that the Chinese don't seem to be that much better at it. I've seen no end of confused Chinese people trying to use the ticket machines for instance.

[Kosh]

Subways in that part of the country, IIRC, are pretty new. Give it a year or two.

[karajorma]

Yeah but they at least speak the language the machine uses.

What's really funny is that the cost of a ticket is 2 yuan but the machine doesn't take 1 yuan notes. No idea why.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

You should see the GTMs we use at Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit. They don't accept coins if you're topping up the standard transport card.

[Colonol Dekker]

Sound business

[karajorma]

What also makes me laugh is that you have to enter your destination in order to get a ticket out of the machine. Quite sensible until you realise that all journeys on the subway cost the same amount.

That said the system itself is pretty damn excellent.

[Wild Fragaria]

Well there's no better way to force you to learn to swim than to jump into the deep end of the pool.

I'm learning to read it pretty quickly actually. All the place names are in Chinese and English so I can pick up the characters just by looking for the difference in spelling between two similar places. Gives me something to do on the subway anyway.

Wow, big change of attitude and career!  I thought you were still moving from chemistry to programming languages!

Good luck with the Mandarin then - my hubby's been learning for a while, but it's always easier when you are immersed in the culture.

[Kosh]

What also makes me laugh is that you have to enter your destination in order to get a ticket out of the machine. Quite sensible until you realise that all journeys on the subway cost the same amount.

That said the system itself is pretty damn excellent.

Maybe they will expand the system later, so why not have a ticketing system that takes this into account?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I was thinking along the lines of it being a tracking system for the lines so they know where and when to add more trains/cars to keep things flowing smoothly. 

[Androgeos Exeunt]

You mean they don't?

[karajorma]

I was thinking the same thing FUBAR but then I realised that they dispense the cards at one station and collect them at the other one so they could get all the data they want without needing human interaction.

On top of that they have a ticket counter that simply gives out cards without any need for a destination, they simply take the money and give you a card.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

...they dispense the cards at one station and collect them at the other one...

Wait, how do they do that? Money trains?

[karajorma]

Er....What?

They give you the card at the station you get on the subway at and take it from you (when you insert it into the gate machine) at the other end. So the card really doesn't need to have any information on it in order to collect usage data.