Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

Watch your step, and your sandals! -- Particularly when getting on or off packed metro trains during peak hours, the city's metro operators warned.
The fashionable slipper-style sandals of trendy women are liable to slip off their feet and on to the rails through the narrow gap between the train and platform, according to a Shanghai Metro Operation Co Ltd spokesperson surnamed Yin.
"Everyday such incidents happen, and up to five cases can be reported on peak days," Yin said, as quoted by today's Youth Daily.
Some short-tempered passengers show intent to jump onto the tracks to get their shoes back, a foolish act which is usually thwarted by vigilant metro staff, he added.
He advised passengers to be careful with their sandals, especially those without ankle strips, when riding the metro.
To prevent such incidents and exclude these too-casually dressed people from public transport facilities, the metro company had drafted a rail transport regulation that banned slipper-wearers.  But the rule was later scrapped because of ever-changing fashions.
"It is difficult to define slippers and vests --the one-time taboo items for males, as they have been adopted as fashion items by young females," he noted.