The newly built metro system is turning out to be a hit with Nanjing residents.

Nanjingers simply could not get enough of riding on the train since the first metro line in the capital of East China's Jiangsu Province officially started running nine days ago.

"Many in the metro are going nowhere, as I found out," said Luo Jiaming, who sells tickets at the downtown Gulou Stop. "They simply got on a train, travelled to the terminal, probably took a picture there and made a return trip without even walking out of the terminal station.

"They kept asking me if they could pay the lowest fare, that is, 2 yuan (25 US cents), by getting out of the metro where they entered it," added Luo.

Families of three or more generations could often be seen showing up at metro stations.

"I am so happy to be here today," said an 81-year-old lady, surnamed Zu, who was accompanied by seven of her descendants to the downtown Gulou Stop of the subway.

Grandma Zu said with pride that the new metro is even more beautiful than the ones in Beijing and Shanghai, which she visited years ago, and the train runs more smoothly.

Nanjing is the fourth city in the Chinese mainland after Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to have a metro system.

Having 13 stops, the metro line is less than half the length of those in Beijing and Shanghai.

But in this two-millennia-old city, the new metro has become the latest concern of local residents, who care about everything around them from the century-old trees to old-fashioned architecture. Many urban residents of Nanjing, however, are not going to use it often.

Most people in the city live in old neighbourhoods downtown, which already has an effective bus system. Moreover, the metro, which mainly links the suburbs with the city centre, has more than half of its stops in the suburban areas.

Among the new metro's biggest fans are young people who plan to buy their own homes.

"With the metro there the suburb is only four or five stops away, but apartments in that area are selling at about half the price of those downtown," said Heng Kai, a 28-year-old salesman with an agricultural product company.

The price of residential apartments in downtown Nanjing has risen to 6,000 yuan (US$741) per square metre, which is almost three times the monthly income of a young civil servant.

(China Daily September 5, 2005)