Long & dwindling road between sleep & work

Updated: 2015-05-01 07:30

(China Daily)

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The high cost of housing in Beijing and other metropolises has forced people to move outside their city, but that means they face a daily trek that can take hours on crowded buses

For 300,000 people, the decision to buy a home 30 kilometers outside Beijing was driven by the high cost of housing in the capital city. Once settled into their apartments in Yanjiao in Hebei province, they then faced the reality of their daily journey to work. The commute, across the Chaobai river and into the city, can take two hours each way. There is a daily struggle to get onto the overcrowded buses and often people have to stand up all the way. Yanjiao is only one of many "dormitory" towns across China, developed outside cities and metropolises with affordable housing as somewhere for workers to sleep.

 Long & dwindling road between sleep & work

A long line for the Beijing bus greets weary commuters in Yanjiao on June 16, 2014.

 Long & dwindling road between sleep & work

Another long day at work comes to an end in Guomao area, Beijing, but these commuters need to wait in the dark in another long line for their bus home to Yanjiao on April 22, 2015.

 Long & dwindling road between sleep & work

Even though buses have a yellow no-standing area around their rear door, the commuter routes are so packed with people that passengers, like these on July 9, 2014, spill into the area and get jammed against the door. Photos by Wang Jing / China Daily

 Long & dwindling road between sleep & work

A driver tries to use his mirror for a clear look at the road but so many passengers have crowded onto his bus in Yanjiao that they block his view on July 9, 2014.

 Long & dwindling road between sleep & work

Weary passengers doze on an early morning bus from Yanjiao to Beijing on Sept 2, 2014. Lack of sleep is common in this city built as somewhere to sleep.

 Long & dwindling road between sleep & work

Sometimes the wait is just too much. A woman climbs over a fence to get to the front of the line for her bus home from Beijing on April 22, 2015.

 Long & dwindling road between sleep & work

A group of people chose a carpool as an alternative to get back to Yanjiao after a day's work in Guomao in the Central Business District of Beijing, on April 22, 2015.

(China Daily 05/01/2015 page7)

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