OK -- not exactly totally Swiss made. But hey, the new signage that they're putting up on quite a number of Line 1 and Line 2 stations are a bit more Swiss.

Unlike their Arial-ian counterparts on Line 5, the new signs at platform level (the one that tells you which station you're in, as well as the next stop) is all in Helvetica (a Swiss font, no less). ALL CAPS is reserved for Chinese placenames; everything else in upper and lowercase.

New with the latest version of the average station sign is the line in the middle, which matches with the present Subway line. At present...

• cinnamon red = Subway Line 1
• navy blue = Line 2
• shiny purple = Line 5

Coming soon...

• yellow = Line 13 (after they've switched to the new signs)
• cinnamon red = Batong Line

And coming later in June...

• evergreen = Line 8
• Mac OS X Aqua blue (see, we had to say it this way) = Line 10
• pale purple = Airport Express

Tian'anmen East and Tian'anmen West stations are already equipped with the new signage system. We suspect more are on their way. Fuchengmen station on Line 2 already has the whole thing done.

And while they're at that, we'd like the AFC "thing" to be reality... you know, the moment will come when you're no longer condemned to dipping your Super Passes over only three terminals...