In London, the etiquette is more complicated: people consistently stand on the right on escalators in the tube (underground metro) system, but not in shopping centres. It is acceptable to say "excuse me" in order to get past someone standing on the left in the tube, but in a shopping centre it would be considered rude.

I am sure the typical response was not actually shame but rather more along the lines of "Gee, those Hong Kong people are stupid!"

Even in a place as close to HK as Canton the people are incapable of this, so I don't think there's much hope for anywhere else!

indeed, they are only using the escalators at half capacity. Peronally I hate people that walk on the escalators. If you wonna walk take the stairs, escalators are for lazy people only.

The Nanjing location clearly has stairs near the escalator, but certainly not all places do. Many shopping centers I've been in clearly don't intend for customers to use the stairs -- they hide them in the back somewhere (sometimes behind closed doors) and they're often underlit and generally unpleasant places. The escalators are of course prominent and easily accessible.

As someone living in Nanjing and taking the subway frequently, I'm just impressed that someone somewhere gives a shit.