Subway travels: A tale of two cities

East is East, West is West, but riding the subway is pretty much the same wherever you go.

Four years ago, my husband and I rode Line 5 in Beijing the second day after it opened. In less than six months, it had reached its capacity of more than 400,000 passengers a day. By the end of last year, the number of riders had reached 650,000 a day, and the city had initiated crowd control during rush hours.

Although two more subway lines have been added to Beijing's public transit network, they do not seem to have eased the crowds.