The photo of the Chambers Street station from Danny Haiphong's tweet.

"The NYU subway has a history of more than 100 years," said Chen. "I admire its glorious history, but to me, many of its equipment, trains and stations' decorations are a thing of the past."

"As a city girl, I prefer shiny new buildings and trains with cool appearance and modern equipment," said the woman who pursued her postgraduate degree in the United States. "Though sometimes you may smell food, especially fillings of steamed buns, on China's public transportation, the environment in general is getting much better."

Some argued on Twitter that the photo of NYU subway uploaded by Haiphong was "deceptive"—instead of showing the modern portion of the Chambers Street station, it showed a portion that has not been used for years. But many admitted that on average the NYU subway is "often decaying and generally very poor".