Rail attendants put passengers' travel plans on right track

Editor's note: Spring Festival is the most important event in the Chinese calendar. It is a time for family reunions, when tens of millions travel home, with some covering vast distances to be with their loved ones. The 40-day travel rush, known as Chunyun, which straddles Lunar New Year, is the world's largest annual human migration. However, some people put the comfort of others before their own enjoyment by volunteering during the festive period. Below, we profile several such individuals.

Monday marked the start of Chunyun, the annual 40-day travel peak that straddles Spring Festival. Tens of millions of people began heading home ahead of Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb 5.

However, train attendant Wang Tianhao and hundreds of his colleagues in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, opted to delay their vacations so they could offer assistance to travelers during the world's largest annual human migration.

"This is the third year I have worked as a Chunyun volunteer," said the 24-year-old, whose volunteer efforts began at 11:26 am on Monday when he boarded a bullet train at Guangzhou Railway Station destined for Guiyang in Guizhou province.

The normal working pattern of train attendants is to be on duty for a few days and then take a break of the same duration. Last week, though, Wang worked four days, shuttling between Guangdong and Gansu provinces, before starting a two-day stint as a volunteer.

"The four-day break isn't enough time to travel back home to Northeast China, but it's long enough for one to get bored," he said.

"We volunteers help passengers with their luggage and with children, and we also organize cultural activities on board, such as a mini-Spring Festival Gala," he said. "I feel rewarded by the passengers' smiling faces after my performance."

Wang joined the Guangzhou Railway Group in 2016 after graduating from a transportation school in Heilongjiang, his home province.

Spring Festival is the busiest time of the year for railway employees like Wang because many people choose to travel by train as it is the most economical way to get home. Accordingly, Wang and his colleagues have developed a different vacation pattern.

"Chinese New Year is never a good time for us to take a vacation. Instead, we take a rest when there are fewer passengers, usually between March and July, although May is excluded," he said, referring to the holiday for International Workers' Day, which falls that month.

Hundreds of young people like Wang are doing what they can to make the passengers' journeys as smooth as possible.

Huang Yinuo, who studies industrial design at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, is a first-time volunteer at Guangzhou Railway Station, where many slower, cheaper trains also stop.

The 22-year-old, who mainly acts as a guide in the station's waiting hall, said her voluntary efforts during the vacation help people who are rushing to get home.

"It's especially helpful for those who are running late, who cannot see the train schedules on the screen or have limited literacy skills," the Jiangsu province native said.

Peng Wanshan, who worked as a volunteer at Guangzhou Railway Station last year, said the experience helped him to understand how much pressure railway workers are under during Spring Festival to ensure the passengers have safe journeys.

"After the first day, I was exhausted, and my throat was so sore after shouting to be heard amid the hustle and bustle of the station. But the railway employees stick to their posts for years," said the 20-year-old, who studies software engineering at South China University of Technology.

Peng, who is from Hubei province, noted that many migrant workers - those who work in large towns and cities far from their rural homes - are usually burdened with large amounts of luggage because they can only return home once a year, usually at Spring Festival.

"It reminds me of my father, who worked as a cook in Shandong province," he said. "I haven't been away from home as long as he was, but the heartfelt welcome at the station always makes me ponder what home means to me."