"Besides departures, Jiahewanggang is seeing more reunions," the Guangzhou metro authority said on its official WeChat account.

Liu Zhicheng, deputy chairman and general manager of Guangzhou Metro, said a subway is the beating pulse of a city, with each station recording the steady footsteps of urban contributors and pursuers of dreams.

"Guangzhou Metro embraces openness, inclusiveness and order, with every traveler departing and returning here with dreams in their hearts," said Liu, who is also a deputy to the Guangdong People's Congress.

In addition to Jiahawanggang, Shenzhen's Fanshen subway station has also become a popular check-in spot in recent years. "Fanshen" means "turn over" in Chinese, originating from the land reform in the 1950s when farmers turned over and became masters of their own lives.

Liu Lizi, director of the urban culture research institute at the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, said metro trains have become a highly relied-upon means of transportation for young people in large cities, especially China's megacities.

The stations are more than mere transportation facilities. Metro stations have become increasingly representative of a city's cultural image and governance capacity, he said.