Riding the subway on the way to meet a friend after work one recent evening, I had one of those “Beijing moments” when you stand back and take note of all the change that’s been going on gradually before your eyes.

I was riding Line 1, which goes beneath the city’s main avenue, and was about to get out to switch to Line 2, which goes in a loop beneath the second ring road - built on what used to be the old city wall.

As one does, I was jockeying for position with my fellow passengers, bracing myself to contend with what I knew would be a rush of people trying to get into the train before we’d even gotten out. That’s just the name of the game, a mini sporting event to top off the day.

The only thing is, everybody outside was lined up neatly on either side of the door, leaving a perfect open path for us to exit through.

I didn’t know what to make of it. It was nice in a way, but then again I almost felt cheated, as though one of the privileges of being an adopted Beijinger was being taken away from me. It was all a little too easy.

Now don’t get me wrong - I’ll be the first to welcome a bit less pushing and shoving during my daily commute. And many of the people I share the subway with each day still have a long way to go to understand what it means to wait in line.

But the ease with which I exited the train that evening set me thinking that all the propaganda, all the comic-book educational brochures, the young men employed to order people into lines and help squeeze them into crowded cars  - that somehow, bit by bit, they’re starting to have an effect.

Maybe even beyond the Olympics.

Jason Subler is a correspondent for Reuters in Beijing

Picture by Jason Lee/Reuters

Video footage of passengers boarding a train in Beijing taken from YouTube. Titled: “Beijing Subway Congestion What happens when the train comes?” Posted Jan. 10, 2008