Gandhi once said that you can evaluate the morals of a society by the way it treats its animals, and in a similar vein, I believe that one of the most genuine ways you can gauge the charm of a city is in the care with which its public spaces are attended. It is one thing to have sparkling clean shopping districts, promenades, malls, and arcades; in the places where big money is made and business is done, you would expect there to be some modicum of concern for aesthetics and environment.
All too often, city councils and governments pay all of their attention to these areas, where the money is and little concern is paid to the places which, although the public shares them all day every day, are not featured in travel magazines or guidebooks.
Nearly every city in the world has this dichotomy between public and private spaces, and although the public spaces are the ones that are the most visited by the most people, tourists included, they are often the most grungy and foul-smelling.
Although people do not travel to New York City to see the subway stations (wouldn't that be interesting?), nearly all people who travel there will see this seamy underbelly of the Big Apple at some point during their sojourn there. And they would most likely be predictably affronted by the typical ensemble of sites, sounds and smells that metro stations the world over are known for: urine, perhaps vomit, graffiti, and the slumbering inebriate, not to mention people being attacked or at least shouted at and cat-called.
In short, subway stations are usually pretty gross.
However, if you ever travel to Shanghai—not exactly a small town, nor one known historically for its tidiness—I would bet that you would be very pleasantly, perhaps even alarmingly surprised by how remarkably clean the subway stations are.
Each tile is swept and mopped by an army of custodial experts; turnstiles are new; staff are chipper and helpful (okay, not always, but usually); everything is clearly marked; the bathrooms are bizarrely inhabitable.
In fact, I thought to myself while I was staying there for several weeks, the subway stations in Shanghai just may be the cleanest in the world (that I have seen, at least).
This is an impressive feat, not only because of the sheer amount of foot traffic these places receive on a daily basis, but for the obvious amount of care that the Chinese government puts into its public places. I was taken aback by the amount of tender loving care that these often repulsive and forgotten subterranean areas obviously received from the good stewards of China's public transit system.
So hats off, Shanghai: you have been awarded the 'World's Cleanest Subway Stations' medal.
Keep up the good work.
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Wuhan, Kunming, even Qingdao subway systems are even cleaner. (far less traffic though) Shanghai is cleaning up its image, you have no idea what it used to be like 10 years ago. Everything was covered in black dust and cooking oil, with a strong stench of urine on the side. Beggars and pickpockets everywhere, it was never boring though!