Leave smelly feet at the door
2002-02-08 12:06
Shanghai - Thinking of slipping off your shoes to rest your aching feet on
a Chinese train? Think again. To improve air quality, train guards
are ordering that smelly feet be either washed down or covered up,
rail officials said on Friday.
As the annual rush before nest week's Lunar New Year, or Spring
Festival, builds up and millions take long journeys home, train
carriages traditionally get noxious with the smell of the great
unwashed.
But on one route between Beijing and Shanghai, this might no
longer be the case after attendants started a special service last
month.
If staff on the T13/14 between the capital and the eastern city
see passengers take off their shoes, train attendants go over and
suggest in a low voice that they could wash their feet in a room
used by train staff.
Staff even provide slippers to travellers and the dirty water is
sealed in plastic bags, a rail official said.
Some passengers refuse the service and just put their shoes
straight back on, helping to clear air quality in a different way,
she said.
"At present we are not sure whether travellers welcome the
service or not," she said.
"The service is still at an experimental stage and we will
decide whether to continue or stop after the Spring Festival
traffic peak is over." - Sapa/AFP
- SAPA