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Q: Why don't locals understand how an elevator/lift work?
Press the up arrow if you want to go up, press down for down. If the arrow points up the elevator will go up, if it points down it will go down. There are so many elevators here, why do people always screw this up?
No I think you guys are waving it away as being a problem of simplistic thinking when it's a really a problem of selfish game theory. Maybe people in the countryside who aren't in tall buildings often don't get how it works.
But people in big city office buildings that use it every day at least twice know how it works. They just hit both up and down to maximize their chance of getting on.
If they only hit the direction they want to go they run the risk of it being full, so even though if everyone played by the rules they would all get home faster they hit it both ways, which means the elevators mostly stop at every floor.
But if your goal is to get on an elevator as fast as possible because it might be full on the way down of people from floors lower than yours using UP to make sure they are on when it goes DOWN than it makes sense.
It's not bumpkin ignorance it's just selfishness playing the %s and making things less livable
Englteachted:
Exactly, 'I want the elevator to come serve me now' Once on, I'll try to cancel the elevators orders to go and serve someone else.
Because they do not understand the logic of the elevator programming. Let say the elevator is on the first floor, and you are on the seventh floor wanting to go down.
A Chinese will push the "UP" arrow because he or she would want the elevator to come up to the seventh floor.
Any foreigner will punch the "down" key because in doing so he telling the elevator to come up and get me because he wants to go down.
Elemental, my dear Watson 
I have a similar problem in the building where I live. People tend to simply press both up and down buttons in order to get an elevator. I could never understand it. It does not bother me. I am a very tolerant person. My issue is when I am trying to exit the elevator and people are preventing me from getting out by pushing their e-bikes into the elevator as I am trying to exit. I take my dog for walks often so I make sure she exits the elevator first. Anyone preventing me from standing in the way while we are trying to exit the elevator simply jumps back back and allows us to leave. My advice is simple. If you can't beat them then join them then join them. Simply press both arrow buttons when you need the elevator next time and learn the Chinese words for up and down because people do ask.
No I think you guys are waving it away as being a problem of simplistic thinking when it's a really a problem of selfish game theory. Maybe people in the countryside who aren't in tall buildings often don't get how it works.
But people in big city office buildings that use it every day at least twice know how it works. They just hit both up and down to maximize their chance of getting on.
If they only hit the direction they want to go they run the risk of it being full, so even though if everyone played by the rules they would all get home faster they hit it both ways, which means the elevators mostly stop at every floor.
But if your goal is to get on an elevator as fast as possible because it might be full on the way down of people from floors lower than yours using UP to make sure they are on when it goes DOWN than it makes sense.
It's not bumpkin ignorance it's just selfishness playing the %s and making things less livable
Englteachted:
Exactly, 'I want the elevator to come serve me now' Once on, I'll try to cancel the elevators orders to go and serve someone else.
I think expatlife26 has nailed it. It's simple selfishness.
They hit both trying to get in faster. The irony is that half the time it backfires as if they get in a lift that's going up, the lift continues to go up, even if they press the button for a lower floor. I live on the top floor of my building and almost every day when the lift arrives there is someone already in it who'd unwittingly been taken up to the top to collect me. What's worse is that it's the same people who I've grown to recognize every time. They never seem to learn.
expatlife26:
right it's just playing the %s. it IS the smart thing to do if you believe everyone else is doing it. You'll be left hanging if you don't do it to.
Obviously the best thing for everyone would be if everyone played by the rules because the extra time wasted stopping at extra, often empty floors, going both up and down makes it take on average longer for each individual user.
But without trust that everyone else is playing fair the smart thing becomes to game the system by hitting up and down.
Source: I work on a high floor and deal with this every dat!
Too busy smoking in that cramped, windowless space to pay attention to anything else.
I had seen alot of elevators that were full, be it going up or down. Seems to me that the Chinese neglected to factor in how highly compacted they are with their population of people per given area and fall short of the needed infrastructure to support it efficiently, adequately, and effectively. Ive noticed this phenomena as well when it comes to public toilets in high traffic areas, especially with the long lines of women waiting to use them...
seansarto:
You are correct....the Chinese feel they have been liberated by building upwards...cramming more wads of flesh on a pile...but like you said they don't think about it...ever been on the 20th floor with one elevator working..wait all day to take the elevator
...and that happens to be the same day you are moving...or recieving a new couch....or brought you're bike up to be charged which is all very common when too much flesh has been wadded on a pile...Beautifulsoup:
I used to have friends who lived on the 30 something floor, two of the three elevators were always turned off, because the owner of the building wanted to save a buck on power. It would take 10 to 15 minutes to get from the ground floor to there apartment everytime.
