Today in China

Starting yesterday, people may get on a bus or enter a subway station with the use of a smart card. For those who don’t have it, they may still buy a plain paper ticket on the bus. What may seem like a minor change triggered chaotic situations - especially during rush hours - in this more than 14 million people. 4,000 “order maintainers” were sent to the most crowded bus halts and subway station to help the nearly 1.5 million monthly pass users on the bus and the 200,000 on the metro to get used to this new smart system.

From now on, passenger are required to enter through the front door (or the middle door on buses with three doors) and to exit using the back door (or the front and back doors of a three-door bus), due to the fact that the card readers are installed only for the front and middle doors of busses.

And this Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) does not seem to be restricted to busses and subways! You may also pay with this smart card on a taxi. Anyone of you already used this new system?

Source
China Daily - 2006 05 11