23 Million...and counting

While its probably well known that the population of China is somewhere around 1.3 billion, 23 million of those people have decided to spend their lives living together in the city of Shanghai. There are moments when I can really "feel" the weight of the enormous population. For example - I will sometimes ride my bike down a back alley near my house as a shortcut - an alley that in America would be occupied by a garbage dumpster and maybe a rat or two, but in China that alley has about 10 people on bikes, another 20 or so walking through, and maybe even a food or trinket stand set up. Of all the places in Shanghai, though, I feel the "people pressure" the most on the subway. I took these two videos of the Shanghai subway on a Saturday afternoon, not a Friday rush hour. It is common as you enter a subway car to be pushed(rather hard, I might add) by the person behind you, as everyone is desperate to make the train before the doors close. When you have 23 million people trying to get somewhere, the result is rather uncomfortable. See for yourself....