介绍:
It is 5:30 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.
(ambience, bus engine)
57-year-old Liang Yaojun gets up and walks to the bus stop of route 814 next to the apartment block where his family lives.
(ambience, street vendor calling)
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 arrive.
Bus Number 814 is one of the several major transportation lines that connect Yanjiao to downtown Beijing.
When it does come, however, Liang doesn’t get on the bus.
He is queuing up for his 27-year-old daughter Liang Yuanyuan who works in a banking office in downtown Beijing.
In the queue there are other elderlies like Liang who are simply lining up for their sons, daughters as well as sons-in-law or daughters-in-law.
They hope that by doing this their kids could sleep for 30 minutes longer in the morning and get a seat on the crowded, sardine-can like bus.
The daughter Liang Yuanyuan seems reluctant to talk about how she feels about her father’s effort, but she does admit that it saves her a lot of time.
(soundbite, Liangyuanyuan, female in Chinese, 49,0615)
“It has saved me a lot of time in the morning. For example, now I am able to have breakfast casually at home, which in the past was impossible. My father usually queues for half an hour and then I could directly get on the bus when I am there.”
Liang Yaojun has actually taken advantage of his daily 30 minutes waiting time and calculated the number of commuters in his community who take the bus to Beijing every morning.
(soundbite1, Liang1, male in Chinese)
"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 nearly 400 thousand and is estimated to reach one million in a few years.
About 300 thousand commuters who work in Beijing live in several densely-built communities in Yanjiao.
(ambience, street vendor selling corn)
Every day, in an unpleasant symphony combining street vendors selling boiled corn and unlicensed taxi drivers calling "ten yuan for a ride to Guomao”，
(ambience, unlicensed 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 then they get off at the Guomao business district of eastern Beijing where they either stop and take up their jobs as bankers or businessmen in polished suits, 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 shouts from the crowd, and sometimes, even clenched fists.
(ambience, shouting)
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 the beep sound accompanying her checking her transportation card, Liang Yuanyuan quickly vanishes into the bus.
(ambience, bus card checking)
Before retirement, Liang Yaojun 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 married and has bought his own apartment in the city with financial aid from parents of both sides. Their daughter Liang Yuanyuan studied in the neighboring Tianjin city and moved to Beijing to work for an international bank in the hope of seeking sibling support.
To join his kids, Liang Yaojun sold his apartment in Chifeng city of northeastern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and moved to Yanjiao with his wife in July, 2012. He made the decision because the place is cheaper and close to Beijing. His daughter, a single lady, now lives with Liang and his wife and commutes every day to work.
But when Liang Yaojun went to see his daughter off to work at the bus stop for the first time, he instantly fell into slight depression.
(soundbite2, Liang2, male in Chinese) 45 0709
"I became so disappointed when I first 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 but received no reply. Then he shifted to the online mailbox of the mayor of Beijing and emailed him. Asking for arranging additional shifts of bus route 814, he wrote with the heart of a parent:
(reading of a script from a letter)
"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.
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