Tracks of my tears
Migrant workers, employees working outside their hometowns and students are the main body of passengers during Spring Festival. The homecoming of students starts about one week earlier than the other groups.
Shi Jian, a junior student in Central University of Nationalities, is already home in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for more than a week. But she is full of complaints about the journey by train.
It's a long wait for this tired couple at the Xi'an railway station in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province on February 4. |
Getting a ticket was not a problem for most students in Beijing because most universities book the tickets for students one month ahead of the winter holiday.
Shi said students and migrant workers are generally distributed in the cheaper hard-seat coaches, crowded with people who bought the standing-room tickets. These passengers stand, sit or even lie on the isle. Many take children with them.
Throughout the journey, Shi seldom drank water simply to avoid going to the toilet. "You would have to elbow your way through dozens of people in the isle. In the process, you would have to bear the black look from them, who felt annoyed to constantly make way for the passers-by in such a narrow space," she said. "Especially at night, a lot of people in the isle fell asleep. I could not bear to wake many up," she added.
As the train ran on, many more passengers would board the train and few people got off. Compared to those passengers boarding midway, Shi felt she was lucky to have a seat. She saw a man standing beside her was falling asleep.
For the passengers, 28 hours' journey was both a physical and mental torture. "I felt the time was flowing so slowly. The only thing I could do was to calculate how many hours had passed," said Shi. "Sometimes, I felt so weary of the journey and even thought of jumping out of the window."
She believed it was the strong wish to reunite with families that supported her and other passengers to get through such a miserable journey.
(China Daily 02/13/2007 page20)
