The metro is the piece of Chinese infrastructure a visitor uses most, and this site treats it as two problems: how to pay, and what the bag scanner is doing. Both are solved. Neither is about the journey.
Inside the carriage there is a national rulebook, and it is worth ten minutes because two of its rules are ones a foreign visitor breaks without noticing.
The rulebook was replaced in 2025#
The governing document is the Measures for the Administration of Urban Rail Transit Passenger Operations and Services, issued by the Ministry of Transport as document 交运规〔2025〕3号 (jiāo yùn guī, the ministry's transport-regulation series, No. 3 of 2025) on 8 April 2025, effective on issue.
It matters that this is the 2025 text, because it repealed the 2019 version outright — the one that took effect on 1 April 2020 and that almost all English-language writing on Chinese metro rules still describes. The substance carried over, but anything citing the old instrument is citing something that no longer exists.
The passenger rules sit in two articles, and the split between them is the useful part.
Article 35: things that are prohibited#
These are the safety prohibitions, and they are the ones with consequences.
Smoking or lighting a naked flame in a station or on a train. Carrying toxic, harmful, flammable or explosive dangerous goods into the system. Going the wrong way, pushing or larking about on a moving escalator.
None of that will trouble an ordinary traveller, with one exception worth flagging: the lighter in your pocket is the item that gets a foreign visitor stopped at more than one kind of Chinese checkpoint, and the metro scanner is looking for the same categories.
Article 36: things you are constrained from doing#
This is the list that changes how you behave, and it is not about safety but about order.
在列车内进食（婴儿、病人除外）
No eating in the train, with an exception only for infants and the ill.
大声喧哗、吵闹，使用电子设备时外放声音
No loud talking, no commotion, and no playing audio out loud from a device. Headphones or silence.
The same article also rules out begging, busking and song-and-dance performances, and lying across the seats or standing on them.
The two a visitor actually breaks#
Be honest about which of these matter to you.
The coffee. Buying breakfast and eating it on the way in is completely normal behaviour in most countries and is on the list here. Finish it on the platform. The rule names eating rather than drinking at national level, but see below — some cities are stricter.
The video. Watching something on your phone without headphones is the single most-enforced-by-glaring rule in the Chinese metro, and it is written down. It is also an interesting contrast with the railway, which solves the same problem in the opposite direction: on a long-distance train the quiet is opt-in and you buy your way into it, since the silent carriage is a coach you select at booking rather than a rule imposed on every seat.
Cities add their own layer#
The national measures are not the whole rulebook, and the additions are where the specifics live.
Shanghai's passenger code, issued by the municipal transport commission as 沪交行规〔2025〕2号 (hù jiāo xíng guī, the city's transport-rules series, No. 2 of 2025) and in force since 1 March 2025, replaced the city's 2020 version. Three of its provisions are worth knowing, and only one of them appears in the national text:
- Priority boarding and giving up your seat. The old, the young, the sick, the disabled, pregnant women and anyone carrying an infant board and alight first, and other passengers are told to give up their seats. The national measures do not do this; cities do.
- **No eating or drinking in the carriage.** Shanghai's wording covers both, where the national text names eating.
- Luggage limits, set in weight and volume as well as in the sum of the three dimensions.
This is one city's code, quoted because it is the one that can be read in full. Every network has its own, so the safe assumption is that the local rules are at least as strict as the national ones and occasionally stricter.
What this does not cover#
- Paying is a separate problem with three solutions, and the transport code inside Alipay is the one to set up.
- The scanner at the entrance applies to everyone and is routine — what it is looking for and how long it adds.
- Children travel free by height on the metro, which is the opposite of the railway's age rule and a genuine trap — the thresholds and the per-adult allowance differ by city.
- Getting around above ground — taxis, buses, the intercity network — is the wider transport picture.
Frequently asked questions#
Can you eat on the metro in China?#
No. The Ministry of Transport's 2025 passenger-service measures list eating in the train among the behaviours passengers are constrained from, with an exception only for infants and the ill. Some cities go further and prohibit drinking as well, so finish it before the gate.
Is it illegal to play music out loud on the Chinese metro?#
It is on the national list of constrained behaviours: loud talking, commotion and playing audio out loud from an electronic device are named together. Use headphones. Enforcement is usually social rather than formal, but the rule is written down.
Are there priority seats on the Chinese metro?#
Yes, and they are set locally rather than nationally. Shanghai's passenger code, in force since March 2025, gives priority in boarding and alighting to the elderly, children, the sick, the disabled, pregnant women and anyone carrying an infant, and tells other passengers to give up their seats.
What are the rules about luggage on the Chinese metro?#
Set by each city rather than nationally, in weight, volume and combined dimensions. They are generous enough for ordinary travel luggage and are a separate matter from the rules for trains, which have their own allowance.
Have the Chinese metro rules changed recently?#
Yes. The national measures were reissued in April 2025 and expressly repealed the 2019 version that took effect in April 2020. Most English-language guidance still describes the repealed instrument, though the substance of the passenger rules carried across.