Pushing The Button Does Not Close The Elevator Door Faster

Back at my former, isolated, iron-fenced, prison-yarded, hostile-to-foreigners-of-all-nationalities apartment compound, the building where I lived suffered a power outage. The elevators did not work. I had just arrived home from my job and saw residents standing around outside. I'd long-before realized that communication was impossible, so I didn't try to ask anyone what was going on. I just walked inside and pushed the "up" button for the elevator and it didn't even light up. No problem. I began walking the stairs...to my apartment on the 15th floor.

By the time I reached the 3rd floor, the immediate meaning of the number "15" began to sink in. But just when I'd mentally settled-in for a long, exhausting slog up the steps, I suddenly noticed I had already climbed to the 14th floor, and moments later, I arrived at my apartment door. It was as if I'd skipped a couple of floors altogether, which, indeed was exactly what happened.

Beijing is a city of thousands of high rise buildings, and among the more unusual things at some of them is that there is no 4th or 13th floor. It is all due to the legendary Chinese attention to superstition. The number "4," or any number that includes a "4," is considered bad luck, because "4" is similar to the sound for the Chinese character representing "death." (As for 13, apparently it is internationally, even universally, infamous. If you're tagged with a 13, you can't get away with anything, not even in outer space.)

But that fact does not come close to explaining the habit which Beijingers have of pushing the "door close" button on the elevator. From office ladies to maintenance workers, everyone seems convinced that hitting this magic button makes the elevator door close faster, and starts the ride quicker.

I know better. I regularly ignore the "door close" button whenever I step into an elevator. I just punch the button for my floor and get ready to ride. Sometimes I like to annoy the other riders by taking up position directly in front of the panel so no one else can get to the button, thus causing the perceived, interminable, 1.225-second wait before the door shuts and the elevator leaps into action. It is just my way of trying to make it clear: Pushing the Button Does Not Close the Elevator Door Any Faster. I can't believe anyone on the elevator is in such a hurry that they believe the time it takes for the door to close will make any real difference in their journey. Maybe they don't think the door will close at all.

Another high-rise behavior I like is how people misinterpret the "down" button in the lobby. Some impatient riders, unfamiliar with the way an elevator works, notice the car is stopped on an upper floor. So they push the "down" button, to bring the elevator "down." Then they climb aboard the elevator and get angry when it continues to go down to the basement, when they expected it to go up to their desired floor instead.

Yes, it wastes a few minutes during my day, but it's still amusing to watch. And I need to laugh.

What I really want to do is mechanically engineer an elevator in Beijing which automatically rises from the lobby straight to the 4th floor when someone hits the "door-close" button. It's a fair bet, then, that "emergency stop" will be a popular option.