Nanjing’s Zhujiang Lu Metro Station is now being called the sweetest station on the network. And that’s because of a policy to hand out candies to passengers who are feeling unwell, if the little treats may relieve their discomfort.
The recently-publicised initiative, which actually dates back to as long ago as 2007, is down to the station’s location, just up the road from Nanjing Children’s Hospital on Guangzhou Lu.
As such, Zhujiang Lu Metro Station sees more than its fair share of sick children passing through with a parent or caregiver. In particular, the station’s exit 1 is just a 5-minute walk from the Hospital’s main entrance.
The program, which sees Nanjing Metro staff handing out sweeties to the sick, has been such a hit that the station itself has been decorated in colourful children’s pictures. Jars stocked with candies are also to be found in the customer service kiosk.
Inspiration for the program came in the form of a true story dating back 15 years, in which a couple had made the journey from Anhui Province to visit the Hospital with their sick child.
But crying out for candy, the parents were short on money and unable to buy anything to relieve the suffering child. That’s when a metro employee stepped in. The rest, as they say, is history.
So who’s paying for this program? Are our ticket fares subsidising the buying of sweeties for the sick?
No; a fact confirmed by Head of Nanjing Zhujiang Road subway station, Cai Yang. As The Paper reports, “Every employee has a ‘magic pocket’ with candy”, Cai said. And they fill that magic pocket themselves, out of their own pocket [pun absolutely intended].
Cai was also able to reveal that the program is not restricted to children. She recalled one day when her staff heard a walkie talkie report informing them a passenger had fainted in the station. Learning that it was on account of hypoglycemia, a staff member was dispatched, to return with lollipops for the passenger.
But before rushing to Zhujiang Lu feigning one illness or another, consider that a better, long-term bet might be shares in one of the sweetie shops inside the station.
