2 | Thursday, April 22, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY PAGE TWO

Commuters line up to board a subway train during the morning rush hour at Sihuidong station in Beijing in November. ZHU ZHENQIANG / FOR CHINA DAILY Trips: Workers dream of a better life

From page 1 in a traffic jam. ing to pass through including schools, She has become used to the journey China, only 76 percent of commut­ “At first, I killed time listening to checkpoints. hospitals, major and plans to continue making it for ers spend less than 45 minutes trav­ “We checked real estate projects music, but I have gradually realized On Jan 8, Wang We sleep outside infrastructure and the foreseeable future. eling. that are further away, including that I am either at work, or on my arrived at an transportation ser­ “At least there is a subway line “Long­distance commuting has some on the Fifth Ring Road and way to work, a lot of the time. I have expressway check­ Beijing, but our vices, lie within the linking the downtown area and become a major factor limiting a the Sixth. However, the support little time to relax after I arrive home point at 8 am and dreams are there. Fifth Ring Road, Tongzhou. I can read books or watch city’s high­quality development and facilities are unsatisfactory, as at around 9 pm. I’m exhausted.” waited for three along with most videos during the time I spend on reducing residents’ happiness,” the there is a lack of kindergartens, Wang, who owns a 130­square­me­ hours in a long line … I told my wife I workplaces. These the subway,” she said. report said. schools and hospitals.” ter apartment that cost about 1.8 mil­ of vehicles. She will work harder to factors have led to According to a report released in “Affected by job opportunities, At the time, the couple had been lion yuan in Langfang, said she is burst into tears high real estate pri­ December, more than 10 million high real estate prices, family con­ renting for several years and had considering renting in Beijing again. and called her boss make more ces in downtown people in 36 major Chinese cities siderations and education, it’s diffi­ become tired of landlords raising “The money I paid for my apart­ from her car while money for our Beijing. spend more than one hour on sin­ cult for residents to choose living rents annually. They set their ment could only ‘buy’ a living room she was waiting. According to the gle­trip commuting, accounting for and work locations that are a short sights on new real estate projects in Beijing. For the past two years, She eventually family, especially Hurun Research 13 percent of the commuters in distance (from each other). Deepen­ outside Beijing. I’ve enjoyed this large apartment, arrived at work, our lovely 2021 list of self­made these cities. The report was pub­ ing home­work separation is a “We wanted a place of our own so which is situated in a beautiful com­ tired and hungry, billionaires under lished by the China Academy of reflection of the unbalanced supply much, especially as we were plan­ munity that is full of trees and flow­ at 1 pm. daughter, to give age 40, which has Urban Planning and Design. of residences and jobs.” ning to have a baby,” Li said. ers, but the exhausting long­ “I felt as though us a home in just been released, In Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou The couple and their 3­year­old distance commuting has affected Beijing was reject­ Beijing in the near four of the top six are and Shenzhen, Guangdong pro­ Problem addressed daughter now live in a residential both my mental and physical ing me that day. I from China. vince, up to 18 percent of commut­ Ni Pengfei, director of the Chinese community in Guangyang district, health,” Wang said. was emotional at future. That’s my Zhang Yiming, ers spend more than one hour Academy of Social Sciences’ Global Langfang, about 50 km southeast of “I’ve tried to lead a two­city life, the time, but I’m promise.” the 38­year­old making a single trip. In Beijing, the Urban Competitiveness Research the center of Beijing. but have failed.” pretty rational founder of Byte­ proportion is as high as 26 percent. Center, said urbanization is an irre­ Every morning on a work day, Wang, who is currently making a now, and know I Li Xiaobai, engineer Dance Technology, The report said the average com­ versible trend in China, and the core they rise at around 5 am, before round­trip of 160 km each work day, have to move back. the parent company muting distance in these four cities problems of urbanization are peo­ heading to work by car an hour later. plans to sell her apartment and buy Otherwise, I am always going to be of short­video platform Douyin, is 9.3 km, with Beijing ranking top ple’s homes and jobs. They spend 40 minutes on express­ a smaller one within 30 km of her an outsider.” which is known as TikTok outside with 11.1 km. Ran Jiangyu, senior engineer at ways and another 25 minutes travel­ workplace. China, ranked second on the list. His The average commuting time in the China Academy of Urban Plan­ ing within Beijing to their offices. The last straw for her came in Jan­ General picture company was founded and is head­ the capital is 47 minutes — the only ning and Design, said some indus­ There is no subway line between uary, when clusters of COVID­19 Beijing has four major functions as quartered in Beijing. city in China where commuters trial cluster zones in big cities have Beijing and Langfang. Some bus infections were found in some villa­ China’s capital, serving as the nation’s Encouraged by such success and spend an average of more than 45 led to a separation of home and journeys between Beijing Railway ges in Hebei. political, cultural, international com­ attracted by job opportunities, mil­ minutes getting to or from work. work, as more people tend to live in Station and Guangyang take more Even though the villages are far munications, and scientific and tech­ lions of people are willing to endure The report said many cities in the high­quality residential communi­ than two hours, so driving is the best from where Wang lives, the local nology center. It has 16 districts, with long­distance commuting to work in world, including Shanghai and Nan­ ties, which are not typically situated option for commuters to get to government announced that com­ Dongcheng and Xicheng as the core Beijing, including those living in the jing, capital of Jiangsu province, in industrial areas. work. Some 80 percent of the resi­ muters traveling between Beijing area. city but far from the center. aim for 90 percent of their commut­ Beijing, the city with the toughest dents in the area work in Beijing. and neighboring cities in Hebei had The core area and neighboring Books editor Zhang Xiaoxiao, ers to spend less than 45 minutes commuting problem in China, has Li said at least nine real estate to produce several documents and districts such as Chaoyang and who is in her 30s and lives in traveling, which is considered a taken steps to address this situation projects in the area are targeting negative nucleic acid test results to Haidian play major and essential Tongzhou district in eastern Beijing benchmark for a prosperous, fair in a number of respects. people who work in Beijing, rather enter the capital via expressway. roles for the city. and works in Chaoyang, spends a and sustainable city. In 2017, the capital published its than local residents in Langfang. This led to long lines of traffic wait­ The capital’s key resources, total of four hours commuting a day. However, in the 36 key cities in general city plan for 2016 to 2035, “The area we live in is not close to with the authorities making clear downtown Langfang city. Locals that they aimed to move “non­capi­ usually don’t choose to live here. tal functions” out of Beijing and Those who buy property in the area solve “big city diseases”. choose to do so because it’s easy to In 2019, the Beijing municipal lead a dual­city life,” he said. government moved its administra­ “We have to get up early to reach tive offices to Tongzhou, bringing a Beijing before 7am, avoiding the large number of jobs and businesses morning rush hour. Otherwise, we to the area in an attempt to ease the would have no idea when we would population density in the capital’s arrive at our offices.” downtown area. However, asked whether they The Beijing­Tianjin­Hebei inte­ would move back to Beijing in future, grated development strategy aims Li said: “Of course. We sleep outside to bring quality industrial, educa­ Beijing, but our dreams are there. tional and medical resources from “My career, my connections and Beijing to surrounding areas — pro­ my future will always be in Beijing. I viding a better residential and work­ told my wife I will work harder to ing environment for people looking make more money for our family, for new opportunities outside the especially our lovely daughter, to capital. give us a home in Beijing in the near Fang Xiaoyu, 32, a supermarket future. That’s my promise.” cashier in Langfang, used to be a saleswoman at a clothing store in Tough reality Beijing’s Daxing district. She spent The couple are relatively fortu­ 90 minutes traveling from home to nate, as their workplaces are quite work. near an expressway. When her son started attending a Li’s neighbors, who work in a primary school in Langfang last year, northern area of Beijing, spend she decided to quit her job in Beijing about two and a half hours on the to spend more time with him. road to get to work, and three hours “I chose to find a new job near our during rush hours — one hour on home. It seems as though I have left the expressway and another two Beijing, but I haven’t,” she said. traveling within Beijing. Fang now often takes her family to Wang Ying, a 28­year­old sales­ shopping malls, parks and museums woman in the financial sector, in Beijing during weekends, and no said: “I sit in my car for more than longer spends a lot of her time driv­ five hours, driving between home ing to and from work. She is happy and work and back again in the Clockwise from top left: Commuters use the Yanchao Bridge, which connects Tongzhou district, Beijing, with Yanjiao, Hebei province, and opened with her changed circumstances. evening. Sometimes, it’s six hours to traffic in March 2019. HEI JIANJUN / FOR CHINA DAILY Subway commuters travel to work during the morning rush hour in Beijing in January. “No matter where you live, you if I get off work late and get caught BU TA / IC PHOTO Police officers take passengers’ temperatures at the Baimiao checkpoint in Beijing in February. WANG ZHUANGFEI / CHINA DAILY have to embrace a real life,” she said.