Commute costs woman 5,000 yuan a month

Wrapped up in her coat in the chilly spring air, a drowsy Jiang Jingzi walks briskly toward the parking lot outside the railway station in Cangzhou, a small city in North China's Hebei province, on the night of Feb 15.

For the umpteenth time, Jiang returns home to Cangzhou late at night after leaving work in Beijing.

For a whole year, Jiang has kept up a daily routine of rising at 6:10 am, taking a taxi to the railway station in Cangzhou at 6:50 am and catching a high-speed train at 7:23 am that sees her arrive in Beijing 58 minutes later. She gets to her workplace at about 9:15 am after completing the final leg on the metro.