Although approximately millions of Chinese went on a vacation during the recently concluded Spring Festival, not everybody was fortunate to do so, China Daily reported.
Some people voluntarily stayed in the cities to work, while others weren’t able to go home or travel to their supposed destinations during the holiday.
With 41-year-old Ma Qinghui’s case, he wasn’t able to go home to Tonghua in Jilin Province since he wasn’t able to get a ticket.
“It is always difficult to buy a ticket during the Spring Festival travel peak when hundreds of thousands of people commute from where they work to their hometowns,” Ma shared with China Daily.
To compensate for the missed travel opportunity, Ma has opted to book tickets to his hometown for the Lantern Festival instead. Ma, who works as an express delivery man in Beijing for almost a decade, has already bought presents for his family, who he only sees at least once a year.
Ma, however, doesn’t regret working in Beijing. He earns almost four times the average income he would’ve earned in Tonghua by opting to work in the capital.
As for the Zhang Dingtao and his new wife, they decided to forego the Spring Festival celebrations and stay at work at the Sanjiang high-speed railway station in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Both Zhang and his wife view their roles in the railway station as integral, especially Zhang, who works as a signalman.
“Accuracy means life in my position, for a small error may cause a fatal accident. As the control procedure is totally intelligentized now, the signalman must be qualified with technical knowledge and virtue of prudence,” Zhang told China Daily.
Zhang, an only child, feels a tinge of guilt, however, for not being able to go home to his parents in Gansu Province.
Aside from delivery men and railway station workers, journalists and other professionals also stayed behind to cover the Spring Festival celebrations across the country.