more subway silliness

so since i got here in the subway stations there have been these ticket machines, some wrapped in plastic and others saying out of order. in guomao, which is the central business district station where i work, there have been about twenty of them sitting there at one end of the station. also, ticket gates were installed but not in use, the gates were just opened and you checked your ticket or swiped your card at the top of the stairs. but last monday that all changed! the ticket machines and gates were put into operation.

almost everybody uses the stored-value IC cards, because it's a whole lot easier when you commute than buying tickets every time. however, of the twenty-something ticket machines, only one, that's right, one, allows you to add value to your card. at all the rest you can only buy single-use tickets. i can not for the life of me figure out why they did that.