At last, an Olympic event that the UK will win

**English assassin** · 02-12-2007, 15:05

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1368934.ece

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Wait for it: queueing joins the Olympics
Jane Macartney in Beijing

There are several traditional ways to reach the front of a queue in China. People push, shove, jostle, elbow and even punch their way. The methods rarely, if ever, include standing in line. Until yesterday.

“To queue is civilised, to be polite is glorious,” was the mobile phone text message to which Beijing residents awoke.

Across the capital, middle-aged women in red jackets beat on drums, waved flags and danced to herald the start of the newest Communist Party campaign: Queueing Day.

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics around the corner and national prestige at stake, officials from the Capital Ethic Development Office designed a campaign to give the city’s 15 million inhabitants lessons in civility. “It’s true. We don’t have this habit of queueing in China,” Liu Shuping, from the Chongwen district passenger office, said. “But with the Olympics coming, this is changing.”

Zhang Huiguang, director of the development office, addressed a crowd of volunteers in Beijing before they fanned out to take up their posts at nearby bus stops.

“We want to be on our best behaviour for the Olympics,” she said. The volunteers and traffic wardens, standing in uneven lines, responded with gusto: “I pledge to participate voluntarily and to queue up voluntarily and to be a civilised citizen to win glory for the homeland and bring honour for the Olympics.” Queueing Day in the capital will take place on the 11th of each month — officials decided that the figure looked like two people standing in line.

Wang Hongmei, with her sash reading “Supervisor of Riding Politely”, was in charge at the Chongwen street bus stop. “What bus are you catching? No 43? Then go up there, that’s your queue. Please stand in line,” she shouted at bemused commuters. Her panels with bus numbers flew up like paddles to pat stragglers into line. The bus drew up but Ms Wang’s back was turned as she barked out commands to new arrivals. The queue for the No 43 wavered and broke.

But Wang Xinglan said that she was happy to wait in a queue for the bus. “Before it used to be chaos, but now it’s not nearly such a crush. Even buying train tickets is a little better.” Her queue climbed on to the bus in demure single file.

Discussion was heated on a morning radio show. One host said: “It’s a tragedy that we have to have a Queueing Day in Beijing. This should be our natural behaviour.”

In the western Xicheng district, banners read: “Voluntarily wait in line, be polite and put others first.” Those in northwestern Haidian simply say: “I am a member of the queue.”

We'll miss all this one party state stuff when its gone you know. "Queuing day" and the "Supervisor of Riding Politely", its genius.

Not that we couldn't do with a few lessons in London before our Olympics in 2013.

**Fragony** · 02-12-2007, 15:16

What do you mean you guys are robots when it comes to queuing, even when there is enough place under a roof people will stand in a que in the rain when waiting for the bus.

**Husar** · 02-12-2007, 15:31

Originally Posted by Fragony

What do you mean you guys are robots when it comes to queuing, even when there is enough place under a roof people will stand in a que in the rain when waiting for the bus.

Here we have the same habit as the chinese, only the strongest get a seat...

But I find it funny how the Chinese try to make themselves look better once all the world looks at them. We may want to show them that military equipment looks really ugly and they will throw it all away in order to keep a nice image.

**Banquo's Ghost** · 02-12-2007, 15:52

Even Britain's top queuing athletes would have had a problem if the old Soviet Union could still field a team.

Most shops had a triple queue system: You queued to look at the produce on offer, took a number and then queued to choose what you wanted. Then on to a third queue to pay. There were some old women who were still in a queue they joined during the siege of Leningrad.

You can still find a few of these shops in spite of new-fangled concepts like customer service, so they're not out of it yet.

**Goofball** · 02-12-2007, 19:17

Drinking warm beer through crooked teeth is an Olympic event?

**Mikeus Caesar** · 02-12-2007, 20:45

Originally Posted by English assassin

Not that we couldn't do with a few lessons in London before our Olympics in 2013.

I know building work is behind schedule, but not that far behind.

**GoreBag** · 02-13-2007, 22:23

The volunteers and traffic wardens, standing in uneven lines, responded with gusto: “I pledge to participate voluntarily and to queue up voluntarily and to be a civilised citizen to win glory for the homeland and bring honour for the Olympics.”

It's funny to me how Chinese this is.

**Don Corleone** · 02-13-2007, 22:27

I don't know here. The Party is attempting to go against 3500 years of shoving one's way to the front. Chinese people are polite and friendly, in their own way. Queueing is not one of those ways. America is schizophrenic about our queueing....we all try to appear as though we're being polite, but in reality we're trying to sneak ahead of each other.... must come from basketball... if the defenders feet are planted, the foul is on the offense, if not, it's on the defense; regardless of who ran into whom.

**drone** · 02-13-2007, 22:37

If the Chinese queues can be slightly more civilized than the typical ski-lift line in Europe, they should accept that as a resounding success and move on.