This is some interesting experience when it comes to using an elevator in China. Elevators cost a lot of money and so they have only 50% or less of the elevators in office buildings than they would need. At rush hours you find up to 50 people wait for an elevator with a capacity of 15. But don’t worry, most Chinese are very light so that the overload alarm goes off very seldom. But don’t try to go in as the last person because the elevator will stop at every floor and you have to go in and out all the time. Here are the elevator laws in Chinese office buildings:
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1.Go in as one of the first, because when the elevator stops for the first time, the guy who went in first in the very back needs to go out first. You will need continuously go in and out, until the crowd can sort inside the elevator.
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2.When you choose the story you want to go to, press the button minimum 15 times (1 time for each person in the elevator) This makes you one of them and they respect you much more.
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3.If there are 25 people in the cabin, you will find minimum 15 of them on their cell phone (14 of them are using the last model of the iPhone)
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4.Calling in the elevator means you yell very loudly in your poor microphone. This gives you more respect especially when you talk German. Talking English limits your comments only to the nice ones because they understand!
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5.When the elevator stops and the door opens, people always try to come in the elevator first before they let the people out.
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6.Most of the time people don’t talk in the elevator except on the cell phone. They communicate with odor. And the good thing is even foreigners understand this language because it says: stay as far away from me as possible.
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7.When someone presses himself in the elevator as the last person and the over-load alarm goes off, the negotiation begins about who has to leave.
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8.When the elevator comes and you believe there will be enough space because there are only 5 people in front of you, don’t be surprised when there is a guy with pallet with goods on a forklift inside already. The right thing to do in such a case is to squeeze yourself in. I tried many times to wait for he next elevator, but there was another pallet inside. They are unloading a truck on the street and bring the stuff in the 30. floor
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9.Be careful when you leave the elevator because the floor will not be even there is always a step. But don’t worry, if the step is still not bigger than 5” everything is normal.
Now since you read this, you are ready to use an elevator in a chinese office building. Next time I will tell you some tricks how to be the first in the elevator and how you avoid the special communication I mentioned earlier.