Female-only compartments available in Shanghai
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-02-08 14:32

Shanghai Railway Station has started to provide female-only compartments for passengers reluctant to share slumber space with strange men.

The gender-restricted sleepers began their runs between Shanghai and Beijing on Monday following an order from the Ministry of Railways, the local Shanghai Daily reported Wednesday.

At present, the sleepers are available only on two of the five high-speed trains that make the 12-hour trip between Shanghai and the Chinese capital. And only two, four-bed compartments have been set aside for women on each of those trains.

"I just can't accept the idea of sleeping inside a cubical next to some guys I don't know. It would feel so unsafe and uncomfortable," the newspaper quoted Ruan Chenji, a 25 year-old single woman from Shanghai, as saying.

Railway officials said the new service was rolled out in a bid to cater for passengers' requirements for privacy protection and to give a better ride for women travelers.

The Shanghai Railway police said sexual harassment was not an issue since few such cases have been reported in recent years.

A Shanghai Railway Station official surnamed Han believes the new service will be a big hit once people get to know about it, the newspaper said.

Tickets for the female-only compartments cost around 500 yuan (62 U.S. dollars), the same as the berths in mixed-company quarters.

Some railway workers say the cloistered train trip might not appeal to many young moderns anyway, as they found it fun to make friends with the strange guys they met on the train.

And some men foresee the possibility of other night-long combinations.

"Why not also offer carriages in which single men and women can travel together?" the daily cited Xie Ye, a 29-year-old frequent train traveler in Shanghai, as saying. "I think that would be a blessing for single people like me."