By He Jianwei (Beijing Today)
Updated: 2008-05-08 09:42

Commuting in rush hour is an exhausting experience for office workers. With the opening of new subways, more and more commuters will ride the rails. Some people may spend one to two hours on the train, so knowing how to kill time while on board is critical.

Popular portable Play Station

"Without a Play Station Portable (PSP), a subway ride feels more like a traffic jam," one netizen wrote in a survey on ways to kill subway time; 37 of the 53 respondents echoed his sentiments. The PSP is a portable game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. One can not only play games, but also listen to music, browse images, read e-books and watch movies and TV series.

"I live in Liujiayao and work in Wudaokou. I spend more than one hour on subway line 5 every day. I'm afraid of falling asleep and missing my stop, so I play PSP to keep me awaken. It makes the one-hour-journey shorter," Liu Jianing, an IT worker, said. Liu said most of his friends like to play games during their commute. Men liked to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja and Ridge Racer. Women prefer to play LocoRoco.

**Tips

If your subway journey is less than 10 minutes, small flash games like ZUMA are best.

If you will be on the rain for 30 minutes, then consider Ridge Racer or Naruto.

If the journey is more than an hour, you can download movies and TV series.

You can download games, music, movies and TV series from the following Web sites:

psp.tgbus.com

psp.chinaba.com

Making friends on Bluetooth

Song Wuyi recently published An Office Worker's Love Adventure, the story of how a commuter with the same name found a girlfriend on the subway using Bluetooth. He first met the girl, Candy, while on the subway, where they communicated using the Bluetooth in their phones.

Bluetooth is a wireless network to connect and exchange information between mobile phones. Subway line 5 makes a signal available to the mobile phones. Passengers can make phone calls and send messages on the subway.

"The Bluetooth service can make the communication with a stranger less embarrassing. For example, if I see a skirt I like, I can ask the passenger where she bought it. Of course, she would need a mobile phone with Bluetooth," Ding Yi, a clerk in a bank, said.

**Tips

Mobile phones with Bluetooth can receive the information within 50 meters. You have to know what kind of mobile phone the other passenger has and make sure your phones are the same brand. Leaving Bluetooth running all the time is unsafe and makes it possible for your phone to be infected with a virus.

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