Quotable

The way home might be tiring, but it's worth it because I can see my children and enjoy a home-cooked meal. These are moments you don't get to enjoy in a boardinghouse."

QIAN YING, who commutes to Beijing from Tianjin, explains why he chooses to spend about four hours traveling every day and roughly 2,600 yuan ($420) a month on transportation rather than staying in Beijing. With high-speed trains gaining steam and property prices rising in big cities, more office workers are likely to jump on the bandwagon of commuting by rail and join the "high-speed train tribe".