On the road at dawn and dusk
The rocketing price of homes in Beijing and other big Chinese cities has forced city dwellers to look elsewhere to live
It is a dream of people everywhere on the planet: to have a home they can call their own. But when that dream becomes unaffordable, compromises have to be made, and for many Chinese that means moving to the periphery - and often further still - of the city that is beyond their means. The city of Yanjiao, Hebei province, 30 kilometers from Beijing, has become the dwelling place of as many as 300,000 people who faced that problem. And for many that housing dream has turned into a traveling nightmare - a commute to work in the capital that can carve four hours out of their lives every workday.
| The early-morning bus carrying workers from Yanjiao to Beijing provides the opportunity to catch up on lost sleep. The advertisement on the side talks of "Chinese-style happiness in owning your own home". Photos by Wang Jing / China Daily |
| In Guomao, central Beijing, workers in a car-pooling scheme prepare to return home to Yanjiao. |
| A passenger takes a shortcut to the front of the line for a bus that is about to leave Beijing. |
| Sardines is the watchword on many a commuter bus. |
| Passengers line up to take the bus from Yanjiao to Beijing. |
(China Daily Africa Weekly 05/08/2015 page4)
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