Beijing is huge. There are 21.71 million people living in this 16,450-square-meter city which is divided into 16 districts. Beijing is small. For some individuals, they are constrained to two spaces-their desks at work and the other on the subway carriage.
How big is a subway carriage? There are three types of them that vary from around 49 to 66 square meters. According to a survey, one carriage carries around 350 passengers during the peak hours of traffic. That is to say, almost 7 people standing together in a 1-square-meter space.
If you take the subway during off-peak hours, there are about 100 people in one subway carriage.
Recently, based on official statistics released by Beijing authorities, People’s Daily gave an interesting analysis analyzing 100 random people. Among these 100 random people, there were 51 men, 49 women; 63 of them had a Beijing Hukou, 37 didn’t; 56 were employed, six earned a monthly salary between RMB 2,000-3,000 ($449), 17 earn a monthly wage between RMB 3,000-6,000, 16 from RMB 6,000-10,000, seven from RMB 10,000-15,000, four earned RMB 15,000-20,000, another four earned between RMB 20,000-30,000, and two earned over RMB 30,000.
Among the 44 unemployed, five of them are college students, two middle school students, and three kindgarten children.
Among the 100, four of them were postgraduates, 17 had masters degrees, 13 graduated from junior colleges, 20 had received senior high school or a technical education of some kind, while 45 of them only received a junior high school education, and two, over the age of 15 were completely uneducated.
Every year, one out of every hundred people is a newborn baby, 0.5 people might face death in the near future; two get married, one gets divorced; Among the 87 over 20-year-old, ten of them are not married.
Among the 100 people on the subway, 96 are Han; three are Man or Hui; one is from another minority ethnic group. 22 of these people don’t use the internet; seven have disabilities; 49 have driving licenses, while only 21 have cars, and 16 are over 60 years old.
Among the 63 people with a Beijing Hukou, eight of them are between 0-19 years old, 19 of them 20-39, 21 of them 40-59, 15 of them are over 60 years old. So in some ways, we can say it is non-native young people that are maintaining the vitality of Beijing.
It’s time to pay more attention to these 100 average Joes around you. Because who they are and their erudition, wealth, industrial potential, and interests are what determines Beijing’s character and culture.
Photos: Pixabay