China heads home for the holidays

The garment worker

Chen Sheping, 48, who works in a clothing factory in Tianjin, spent almost 27 hours getting back to Xiangyang, his hometown in Hubei province, by bus, train and taxi.

"My company rented a bus to transport some employees to Beijing West Railway Station (a journey of about 115 kilometers), so we could board our trains," he said.

"So, I arrived in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon and took an express train at midnight. I reached Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, on Thursday afternoon, and then took a bus and a taxi to my home in rural Xiangyang, I finally arrived home at 6 pm on Thursday," he said.

Chen and his wife lived and worked in Xinjian, a village in Beijing's Daxing district, for about 20 years.

However, in November, a fire broke out in their overcrowded apartment building, which housed more than 400 people, that resulted in the deaths of 19 people and eight serious injuries. In response, the authorities launched a 40 day campaign to eradicate safety risks, including fire hazards in crowded buildings which served as dormitories, storage areas and workshops.

Chen was among many people classified as working in an unsafe environment, so the company was closed down. He later found a job in Tianjin, but his wife still works in Beijing.

"That's why I bought train tickets from Beijing, not Tianjin. I had to meet my wife first and we traveled back to our hometown together," he said.

Although they departed during the Spring Festival travel rush, Chen said he had no difficulty buying tickets and there were fewer passengers on the train than in previous years.

"I bought the tickets two weeks in advance, but I noticed that there were still some tickets left on Thursday and there were also some empty seats during the trip," he said. "That would have been impossible in the past."

Most of the passengers were migrant workers in Beijing, but he didn't know many of them. In previous years, he often came across workmates on the train and they chatted throughout the journey.

"After the fire in Daxing last year, many migrant workers in Beijing moved to Hebei province to look for work," he said.

Chen's son, who also works in Beijing, graduated from a university in the capital last year.

"I have stayed away from my hometown too long. My parents have both passed away, and my son isn't there either, which means there's little to worry about in my hometown. I wasn't really looking forward to returning this year," Chen said.

"Nowadays, I have few feelings about the reality I'm in, or society and the world I see every day. One reason, I think, is that I'm getting older, and the other is that I stopped worrying too much after the fire last year. That was a truly big event that changed many people's lives."

He now believes the old saying that contentment brings happiness. "I just hope my family stays healthy and safe next year," he said.

By Jiang Chenglong