The first 24 hours saw an un-preannounced invisible-ization of your Beijingologist. Seasoned fellow Beijingologists will probably have guessed (right -- sadly, with no money prize) that he was in the Subway system. He's now safely above ground, and threatening the new line with -- a report nobody dare publish.

(Relax, folks. We don't think this will trigger the "net nannies"...)

So here's the truth -- about the new Subway line. The naked truth? We don't mean to be off-color, but it's a report with the "good" and the "bad". Thing is, not all local media organizations publish the latter. So here's the whole shebang...

WHAT ROCKS

• Line 10 is a subterranean godsend to Zhongguancun. Local media report that Zhongguancun has never been in Subway territory, but it kind of faked along in the mind of your Beijingologist with Line 13 stations at Zhichunlu and Wudaokou.

• Line 10 brings the magical world of the Beijing Subway to the eastern bit of the 3rd Ring Road for the first time. This is probably the best gift ever to CBD people. Subways going all directions at Guomao -- we fail to envision anything neater than that.

• Line 10 trains are incredibly silent. Station indicators blink to the right colors (blue = where you're headed; red = where you're not headed), and the Subway map in every train is both useful and super-impressive.

• To this day, your Beijingologist has failed to see anything cooler, neater and more convenient than the transfers at Huixinxijie Nankou. Those people condemned to Subway hell transfers at Dongzhimen and Xizhimen know precisely what your Beijingologist is on about.

WHAT SUCKS

• There's something about the colors at the Line 10 stations that make them a tad more yawn-inducing than Mozart Line (Line 5) stations, where the livery is anything but white. Of course, if your names are Haidian Huangzhuang, Beitucheng, Huixinxijie Nankou, Jintaixizhao and Guomao, we hang our head in shame. We didn't mean you guys.

• Bits of this-and-that broken or missing aren't exactly omnipresent, but they're there from time to time: doors not opening (your Beijingologist actually had to manually operate a platform screen door when the train doors opened but the platform-side ones did not), escalators going kaputt, and -- the biggest downer -- no mobile signals (yet). Semi-insider info tell of infighting between the state-owned Subway company and the equally state-owned telco (oh, the magic that companies bossed by The State can do!); for the average Beijinger, though, the fact that yak-yakketing is not yet OK is a big downer.

• Blister-inducing transfers at Zhichunlu, Shaoyaoju and Guomao. Sorry, guys. We at the Beijingologist should have channeled you some cash to get some at-level escalators installed. Then again, we may have needed State-level shenpi approval for the move.

• Ms Line 10's insane announcements. Either too loud or at times too silent. And yes, she's doing a great mix of Received Pronunciation and US English. At any rate, better than the 50-year-old Ms Lines 1-and-2 announces.

WHAT'S TO COME

• When the telco infighting underground finally gets solved, you'll be able to do wifi throughout all of Line 10. This is just too cool.

• The gaps are getting smaller and smaller. Remember, Line 10 was designed to accommodate gaps as short as 90 seconds between Train A and Train B.

• The much-anticipated transfer to the Zigzag Line (Line 4) at Haidian Huangzhuang will be reality before the PRC turns 60 next year.

• And, of course, in about 4 years time, you'll be able to do a whole loop on Line 10. This thing will do a full circle when the underground digging is done. The next station is Huoqiying. Are you ready for your arrival?