Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who is on a high-profile visit in Beijing this week, took a ride on the capital’s notoriously crowded subway on Tuesday and said he found it even more “crowded” than the Tube in London.

伦敦市长鲍里斯·约翰逊本周访问北京备受关注，周二他体验了以拥挤著称的北京地铁。他称北京地铁甚至比伦敦的地铁更加“拥挤”。

“It was not the peak hour, yet the traffic was comparable to the rush hour in London,” he said.

他说：“现在并不是交通高峰时段。但地铁上的乘客人数堪比伦敦高峰时段的乘客人数。”

Johnson and his crew travelled on Beijing’s No 1 line from Xidan to Gongzhufen in the afternoon, a total of five stops, according to Chinese media reports. He was lucky enough to have secured a seat, after being hailed by curious travellers.

据中国媒体报道，约翰逊及其随同人员于周二下午乘坐了北京地铁1号线，从西单站到公主坟站共乘坐了五站。在好奇的乘客们欢呼致敬之下，他很幸运地占到了一个座位。

Yet Johnson admitted that he was impressed by the “orderliness” and “cheap cost” of the subway, where riders are charged a flat fare of 2 yuan.

尽管拥挤，约翰逊还是称他深感北京地铁“秩序井然”、“价格便宜”，乘客们只需支付统一的两元钱票价。

“I’ve long heard that you take public transportation to work, and you get my full respect,” wrote a blogger.

一位网友在博客上说，“久闻伦敦市长总是乘坐公共交通工具上下班，我对他充满敬意。”

A keen cyclist himself, Johnson pointed out in a speech he gave earlier this week in Beijing that Chinese visitors were attracted to London because of multiculturalism, fine universities and “beautiful communist bicycles”.

作为一个自行车爱好者，约翰逊曾在本周日前一次演讲中指出，中国游客被伦敦吸引，正是因为伦敦的文化多元性、知名学府和“漂亮的社区自行车”。