Yershan

The crowds in the square of Guangzhou Railway Station at late Jan. 19

Since I'm studying at where I live, I have no need to take part in the Spring Move. The activity has been remarked as the "largest human transportation", but I had no concept of it, until the occurrence of a serve weather last year. The bad weather lasted for weeks, and millions of people were reported to be stucked on the way home. At Guangzhou, the city I live, there was about 1 million people stucking at the railway station at the worst period. During those days, the stadium near my house was opened for temporary stay of the stucked people, and I could hear the broadcast, announcing the most recent railway recovery progress, all night long.

The newspaper says the goverment is much better prepared for any unexpected event this year, and I'm curious to see what's actually happening at the railway station besides those terrifying images of heavy crowd, printed on the newspaper or other media. So I plan to see some of my friends off at the Guangzhou railway station.

I don't see what I had expected. Although there are indeed many people going in or out of the underground station, I had experienced more crowd condition in the underground station during the rush hour. Not very crowd yet! At least, not as crowd as I had expected. It only takes no more than 10 minutes for me to guide my friends to the entrance -- many blocks as well as the indicator have been set up to guide the passengers to the proper entrance. The see-off people are not allow to enter the station building during the Spring Move period, so I say good-bye to my friends at the entrance.

I left with a decent impression that everything seems to be in order, but for my friends, the hard time has just begun. After boarding the train, they would have to remain in their seat for many hours -- 20 hours for the fewest -- until the train arrive at their destinations. A bed seat? Not quite probable. In the opposition, in order to carry more passengers, there are some "sitting bed seat" tickets on sold, that is, the beds are used for sitting, not sleeping. Almost none of the trains offer mobile phone charging service, so it's virtually not possible to help them to spend the boring hours by exchanging messages. It's hard for me to imagine spending a day like this -- I had once sitting on a train for 23 hours and felt not bad, but there were not much people on that train at that time, so I could lay down on the seats for sleep. But during the Spring Move, "You are very lucky already if you can manage to get a seat ticket -- many people are standing around me!" my friends said.

A funny story here. After the minister said that the Ministry of Railways will do their best to "ensure no student would have to stand to get back home", a friend of mine went to the ticket office and ask for a ticket to Tianjin. "Seat ticket are all sold out," replied the conductor. "That's all right, I want a stand ticket for student." my friend said. "I'm afraid I'm unable to sell you a ticket," the conductor said, "the minister said we must ensure no student would have to stand to get back home."

When my see-off campaign proceed into the last leaver, Jinghua, who was going to board a train that will run for about 38 hours before arriving at her destination, Changchun. I asked her if sitting for 38 hours would be a difficult challenge for her.

"Well -- actually, I have got used to it," she replied with a smile, "and it really feels great to be getting back home!"

It's report that China's railway transportation ability will be raised significantly in the year 2012. Although the Spring Move this year seems to be much better organized than last year, I do hope that my friends and all others will be no longer suffered from such an uncomfortable "adaptation" in future.