Expats Can Get Away with Eating on the Metro, but Not Locals?

On July 10, a Weibo user reported an incident that took place on the Nanjing metro line 2 involving a foreigner and a Chinese commuter. Both were carrying food and beverage items, yet metro staff did not treat them equally. 

The foreign passenger was seen eating a sandwich from Starbucks, while the Chinese passenger was enjoying his milk tea on the same train. Staff asked the woman eating her bread to put it away, and then walked over to the local commuter and gave him a fine. “Under what rule is this distinction enforced??” the netizen wrote in her Weibo post, which caught the attention of Nanjing metro and the metro police.

After further investigation, the official Weibo account of the Nanjing metro replied to the user who initiated the report: “Thank you for your supervision of law enforcement. We will review internally and promptly address any deficiencies found in our guidelines.”

After the investigation launched by the Nanjing metro revealed a video recording showing the incident, the following message was sent:

(In the video, one foreign woman passenger is seen eating on the train, while a Chinese male passenger is drinking milk tea. Both are violating Nanjing City Rail Transit regulations in Article 38 Item 6, stating that commuters are subject to a warning or a fine between RMB 20-100.

Two metro staff approached the woman, due to language barriers,  they only gave her a warning. However, both staff walked over to the Chinese man shortly after and gave him a fine, which violates basic principles of fairness and the rule of law. 

Further training will be enforced on the two staff to ensure this incident never occurs and that all passengers are treated equally.)

Of the 33 cities that have opened subways in mainland China, 29 have imposed regulations forbidding eating and drinking in subway cars.

The penalty varies from city to city. Ten cities including Beijing have promoted them as “passenger codes” while the other 19 cities are calling them “administrative regulations”, similar to what the Nanjing rail transit system already has in place. This code is a public document that people must respect and abide by. Anyone finding themselves in violation of these local regulations will face legal consequences.

Cities like Shenzhen, Nanning, Xi’an, Wuxi, Kunming, and Xiamen have imposed stricter rules, stipulating that commuters eating or drinking on the metro will be fined, regardless of whether they have put their items away or not. 

Apart from Shijiazhuang and Urumqi, the fines can range from RMB 10 to several hundred yuan. Shenzhen leads the pack with its fines reaching up to RMB 500.

Source: Weibo

 Editor: Crystal Huang

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