Sweepers clean away snow and ice. Provided to China Daily

Street cleaners brave 12 hours in freezing conditions to clear snow

Street cleaners across Beijing were working 12-hour shifts with almost no breaks on Sunday to clear the snow after it blanketed the city's roads and pavements.

"In cases of when it snows, we start to work an hour and a half earlier than usual, at 4:30 am," Cheng Jianshe, 40, told METRO as he swept up in Chaoyang district, his beard flecked with ice. "We get off about 5 pm, one hour late."

Like the tens of thousands of other street cleaners charged with keeping the capital moving, his only break from the freezing conditions outside was the hour he took for lunch. "It's only 2:30 pm, so there's hours left yet," said Cheng, whose been in the job for a year.

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Close by was a worker surnamed Liu who has been cleaning the streets for seven years. He said that, despite the long days, the situation is still not as bad as 2010, when the country witnessed its heaviest snowfall in six decades.

"Last year, the shovel work lasted for an entire month," he recalled. "My longest working day was from 4:30 am until 12 am, almost 20 hours, with only a short time for food and drink."

Wang Changrong hit the headlines in 2010 when he suffered from suffusion of blood on the brain and fell into a coma after almost 100 hours of continuous work in below-zero temperatures. The 50-year-old has been paralyzed ever since. After more than 400 days of treatment, he still cannot move the right side of his body and is unable to speak.

"Doctors say this is the best it can get unless there is a miracle," said his wife, Song Jiafang, a cleaner whose round-trip commute to work takes five hours every day.

Wang was discharged from hospital on Friday and Song said she is helping him to recover with massage techniques taught to her by trained nurses. "At least I don't have to rush about between the hospital and home now," she said.

So far, Wang's treatment has cost almost 600,000 yuan. His family, which has a total income of 5,000 yuan a month, has paid 80,000 yuan, while the government has pledged to cover the remainder.

"We wouldn't even be able to pay that 80,000 yuan if it weren't for the 110,000 yuan in donations we receive from well-wishers," said Song, who stopped accepting charity several months ago. "I'm grateful so many people have come to visit and talk to him, but we can't live off others forever."

Although uncertain about the future, she said the last thing she will do is give up. "I will continue to work," she added. "I'm considering to transferring him to a hospital of traditional Chinese medicine. Maybe TCM will work."

Wang's tragedy, however, has not brought any obvious changes to working conditions of street cleaners, who earn on average just 1,500 a month.

Liu said even though they have always had the fixed working hours, extra shifts are evitable in heavy snow. "If we don't clear up the snow and ice on the road as soon as possible, how can everybody else get around?" he asked.

About 90 percent of the snow in downtown areas and 70 percent in suburban areas will be cleaned by mechanical means, said a statement from Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment. The reduction in the use of de-icing salt has not increased the workload for sweepers thanks to 21 new ploughs designed for pavements, it said.

From Saturday night until 8 am on Sunday, more than 3 centimeters of snow fell downtown, reaching 5 to 8 cm in Haidian district, according to weather experts. Artificially induced snow was used in nine districts to help ease the drought, read a statement from the weather bureau.

Beijing is expected to see more snow on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to reports by Beijing News.