Dongguan Subway Opening Day
I’m not sure how the rainbow rails effect performance
Many years ago, I was watching a program about subways on either the History Channel or Discovery Channel. One of the comments made in the program was that no city could qualify as a truly great city without some form of subway or elevated train system. Thinking of the places I’d visited with subways (Washington DC, New York, London, and Rome), I realized that the speaker had a point.
When I first came to Dongguan, I fell in love with the city and wasn’t shy about expressing my admiration. During those 8 months, I also got to experience the subways in Beijing and Guangzhou. I was often questioned by friends about what could make DG better. Although every city could use an improvement here and there, my #1 answer was always “It would be great if Dongguan had a subway.”
When I permanently moved to Dongguan in 2010, I was delighted to hear that a subway plan had gone from a planned project to an approved project with the first digging starting only a month later.
How To Build Your Own Subway In 3 Easy Steps
Subway Safety
Like nearly all great urban projects, it took a little longer to complete than originally planned. Although I saw subway work scattered around town, most of what I saw was the installation of the entrances for DongCheng. One thing I’m still trying to figure out is why they didn’t use traffic cones here:
Dongguan’s Great Wall of Fire Extinguishers
I suppose a surplus of fire extinguishers may be due to the careful safety requirements. It’s not just plenty of fire extinguishers that makes Dongguan’s subway so safe. There are also other rules designed to keep the Dongguan subway safe and secure. I am personally proud to live in the only city in the world which specifically bans alien eggs durian from being taken into the subway system.
Durian Eggs – Nearly Ready to Hatch
Yes, that’s right. Those evil monstrous eggs disguised as fruit are banned from Dongguan’s new subway system. This means there’s no risk of innocently riding along inside the subway and getting a freshly hatched baby durian beast attached to your face or being attacked by a fully grown one.
In addition to Durian, a few other items are banned:
Prohibited Items (In Addition To Durian)
These appear to include:
- Camp Fires and Meteors. I’m not sure how anyone could carry those into a subway, but I agree that they do not belong on a subway.
- Matches? Cigarettes? Either way, seems reasonable to prohibit them.
- Things that can burn through your hand and poisons. Yes, it’s a good idea to ban those.
- Guns and Knives. Yeah, it’s probably a good thing not to have those on a subway.
- Large Metal Drums. Ummm. . . I guess those could be hazardous in the stairways and escalators.
- Scottish Terriers. I’m not sure why those are considered dangerous.
Maybe it’s really a badly drawn pony. Ponies don’t belong on subways. - Balloons. By themselves, balloons are harmless. The problem is that balloons tend to attract clowns.
- Fast Food. I suppose if we keep all subway riders away from fast food, they’ll live longer, healthier lives.
Time to Ride
Eventually, everyone’s collective patience awaiting the new transit system was rewarded. The first line of the Dongguan Subway (Line 2 ) officially opened on Friday, May 27th, 2016. Line 2 currently extends from the Dongguan railway station to the Humen railway station. I’m not siure if there are any plans to extend it after the other lines open.
DongCheng Station
Just for this historic occasion, my lovely wife and I made a special trip over to DongCheng just to take a quick ride to QiFeng Park and back so we could take some photos.
We went in through the B entrance and took the stairs down into the station.
DongCheng Subway Station, Entrance B
Inside, it looked very similar to the subways in Hong Kong, except that entry and exit gates were on opposite sides instead of being able to be used to go in either direction. All packages had to be run through special durian detection equipment. This means there’s absolutely no chance of those durian beasts getting a nest established inside the tunnels. 
Keeping Dongguan’s Subways Safe From Durian
DongCheng Station Entry Gates
Escalator down to the subway trains
How to Write DongCheng in Squiggle
Riding the Subway
And finally, we got to ride the brand new Dongguan subway.
My Lovely Wife On Dongguan’s Shiny New Subway
Wait times between trains were short, almost always well under 10 minutes. The ride itself was perfect. Smooth, fast, and inexpensive. It was only 2 RBM with a single ride disk or 1.8 RMB with what I’ve been calling a Dongguan Bus Card. Guess I’ll be calling it a Dongguan Transit Card from now on. Rides from DongCheng to either end max out at only 7 RMB.
QiFeng Station
I didn’t realize Dongguan’s subway stations came in different colors. DongCheng’s station is orange. QiFeng’s is green.
QiFeng Platform – Now Available in Green
QiFeng Station Control Room – White inside, but green outside
I guess this means I need to ride Line 2 of the Dongguan subway from end to end to see if they rotate through a set number of colors or if the solution is more creative. Perhaps some stations are decorated with stripes or polka dots. 
Coming up one of the entrances in front of the park left little doubt about where we were.
Yes, this really Is QiFeng Park
But, a quick look to the right ended all possibility of error.
QiFeng Park, Dongguan – Viewed from Subway Entrance E
There was one item in the subway entrance I found a little disheartening. Did some really not want people to stay at QiFeng Park?
QiFeng Park – Do Not Stay
After some discussion, mistranslation, and translation, it turns out that this sign really means “Don’t park yourself in front of the top of the escalator unless you want people coming up to knock you down and walk on you“, but that was a little long for a sign.
Back to DongCheng
As usual for an opening day, there were some minor technical glitches. Several entrances had escalators under maintenance.
Oops, Missed A Step
I’m not sure where the step went. What was a little worrisome, was that the escalator was moving when I took the pic. I hope he figured out the problem before he got to end.
DongCheng C Entrance – In front of Haiya Department Store
Reflections on the new Dongguan Subway
Reflections On The New Dongguan Subway
Overall, I’m extremely pleased. Dongguan’s brand new subway is fast, smooth, cheap, efficient, and convenient. It’s at least as good as the newest lines in Hong Kong, if not a little better. The only drawback I see is waiting for the system to be expanded and fully interconnected with Guangzhou and Shenzhen’s subways. In the meantime, the existing line gives easy access to whole new areas of Dongguan for me to explore.
And, most important of all, the Dongguan Subway system is the one and only place in all of China where I know I’m completely safe from those evil durian beasts.
Update: About a week later, my lovely wife had to go to her hometown. She took a car to the DongCheng subway entrance. From there, she took the subway to the Humen Railway Station and then caught an express train directly to her hometown in Jiangxi and then took a car to her parents’ place. From our front door to her parents’ house took just over 7 hours.
