Railway workers among many who miss festival

SHENYANG: For thousands of years the Chinese have spent the Spring Festival Eve with their families. But some people always miss this reunion, and chief conductor Zhuang Yuan is one of them.

At 9:12 pm on Chinese New Year's Eve (last Saturday), the train that Zhuang manages reached the southern hub of Shanghai after about 15 hours of travel from the northeastern city of Shenyang, Liaoning province. Zhuang then headed to the local dormitory to prepare a traditional meal of dumplings.

Dumplings are popular with northern Chinese on New Year's Eve, but in South China, few people follow the practice.