If you happen to work, stay, or otherwise come within close enough contact with those fantastic trio towers at the "China Central Place" (they must have had better names to choose from, right?), life has been treating you awfully if you came by means of the Beijing Subway. You had to file out of the super-crowded Exit A, with bikes bumping into you, and the odd waidiren bumping into you. Then, you had to deal with that massive zebra crossing, with cars more anxious to get from A to B than yourself. Finally -- and only then -- could you breathe easily, knowing that you're in Huamao Territory.

If you took the car to Huamao, you'd have had an easier trip -- two new (OK, relatively new) "inlets" now send you into the Huamao compound. Life was never easier for those on four wheels, right?

Well, guess what. If you want the ease and confort of getting straight to Huamao without sacrificing the underground world, your remedy is coming soon. Exit A2 at Dawanglu station on Line 1 is in the works as we speak. When all's said and done, you'll just need to pick Exit A, enter a new passageway (turn right immediately after you're in Exit A), and hop on over to Huamao Heaven.

Life's good.

Good, that is, once they open the new exit... the guessing game is now on us to -- as in, it's our turn to predict when Exit A2 will open. My guess? June 2008. Or earlier.

OK, so I cheated by having a super-long time slot. But hey, that refrain of "the sooner, the better" still holds true...