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At half-past 5 in the morning, Yanjiao, a small town in north China's Hebei province, and allegedly the closest town in the province to the country's capital Beijing, is woken up by continuous blares of bus engines.
57-year-old Liang Yaojun gets up at 6 and walks to the bus stop of route 814 next to the apartment block where his family lives.
Walking past a line of street food vendors calling out to sell their products, Liang arrives at the bus stop and begins to wait for the next 814 bus to come.
When it does come, however, Liang steps a little to his left where several elderly people are lining up, and lets those waiting behind him get on the bus first.
Liang is queuing up for his 27-year-old daughter Liang Yuanyuan who works in a banking office in downtown Beijing. And the rest of the elderly are simply lining up for their sons, daughter-in-laws, daughters or son-in-laws, too.
All they hope for by doing this is that their sons and daughters could sleep for 30 minutes longer in the morning and get a seat on the sardine-can like bus.
Route 814 bus is one of the several major transportation lines that connect Yanjiao to downtown Beijing. Liang Yaojun has actually taken advantage of his daily 30 to 40 minutes waiting time and calculated the number of commuters in his community who take the bus to Beijing every morning.
"I estimated that about 7000-8000 people in my apartment block take bus 814 to Beijing every morning. They stand in a line of about 250 meters and wait for 30 to 40 minutes. And I haven't even taken those who share car rides into account yet."
Initially a scarcely populated small town of Hebei province, Yanjiao has only been developed since the 1990s because of its geographical adjacency to Beijing. The direct distance from the center of Yanjiao to Tian'anmen Square in Beijing is just about 36 kilometers. In about 20 years its population has reached about 400 thousand and is estimated to reach one million in a few years.
About 300 thousand commuters who work in Beijing live in the several densely-built communities in Yanjiao. Everyday, in an unpleasant symphony combining street vendors selling boiled corn (ambience, street vendor selling corn), and unlicensed taxi drivers calling "ten yuan for a ride to Guomao" (ambience, black taxi drivers), this huge number of people hop on the number 814, doze off while the bus crosses the Hebei-Beijing boundaries in an hour's trip, and get off at the Guomao business district of eastern Beijing where they either stop and turn to bankers or businessman of polished suits and manners, or take another half- to one hour subway ride to get to their working place in the giant city.
But before they hop on the bus, they are all impatient and grumpy creatures. Anyone who ever attempts to jump the line will instantly stir angry shouting from the crowd, and sometimes, even clenched fists.
Liang Yaojun has been waiting for almost half an hour when his daughter Liang Yuanyuan shows up, clutching her bag while running out of breath. The two don't even have time to say goodbye and only nod to each other. Then with a beep sound checking her transportation card, Liang Yuanyuan quickly vanishes into the bus.
Liang Yaojun sold his only apartment in Chifeng city of northeastern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and moved to Yanjiao with his wife one and a half years ago. That marked the immigration of his entire family to what they hoped would be the greater Beijing area. Before retirement, he taught physics in a local middle school and his wife was a nurse in a nearby hospital. Their son, having studied in Beijing and who later became a police officer in the city, is now married and has bought his own apartment in the city with financial aid from parents of both sides. Their daughter Liang Yuanyuan studied in Beijing's neighboring Tianjin city and moved to Beijing to work for an international bank in the hope of seeking sibling support. Now a single lady, she lives with her parents and commutes everyday to work.
Liang Yaojun decided to move to Yanjiao because of information from an acquaintance and because the place is cheaper and close to Beijing.
But on the morning of the first day he went to see his daughter off to work at the bus stop, he instantly fell into desperation.
"I became so disappointed on the first day when I saw the bus stop. I felt we were so ruined to have moved to such a place. People were queuing up in a line for 250 meters! When can we see the slightest hope? And by hope I don't mean for the future, but simply for getting on the bus. From that day on, my heart has been sunk with huge pressure."
With an active spirit, Liang started to think about helping to solve the problem. He wrote to the bus company and received no reply. Then he shifted to the online mailbox of the mayor of Beijing. Asking for arranging additional shifts of bus route 814, he wrote with a heart of a parent:
"I often queue to get a seat on the bus for my daughter and I know deeply the pain of Yanjiao people commuting to Beijing. I sincerely hope you would consider and understand parents' love for their child."
To Liang's surprise, three days after he wrote to the mayor, the problem was solved.
"To be honest, the bus company didn't bother. They didn't reply to my letter and I talked to their staff at the bus stop and they ignored me. I had no choice so I wrote to the mayor's mailbox. It's no exaggeration to say that Beijing's governance is excellent and always puts people's need in their heart. And they are so quick too. It only took them three days to call me to talk."
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