Holiday workers sacrifice for others

At the Bulungkol police station bordering Tajikistan, police officer Bruhan has volunteered to stay on duty on Lunar New Year's Eve for six consecutive years.

The station, located in China's western frontier, serves some 3,400 people scattered across 3,700 square km. The nearest city is about 150 km away. Patrolling the most remote residential area in the station's jurisdiction requires a day-long walk.

When festivals come, Bruhan and his colleagues are tasked with bringing fruit, tea and other necessities to low-income families in the station's jurisdiction.

"It's a tacit understanding that we stick to our posts during Spring Festival while our Han (Chinese ethnic majority group) colleagues take shifts during the Corban Festival. We all make sacrifices for others," said Bruhan, who is of the Uygur ethnicity.

As most Chinese greeted the dawn of the Year of Snake with their families at home, countless numbers of people like Bruhan embraced the new year by staying on duty.

To ensure the safe operation of the world's fastest railway, which links the cities of Harbin and Dalian in northeast China, technician Wang Yong stayed awake all night during Lunar New Year's Eve to provide maintenance for five CRH380B high-speed trains.

Since the trains run in temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius, Wang and his colleagues at CNR Changchun Railway Vehicle Co., Ltd. have to spend roughly two hours maintaining each incoming train in Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province.

The 65 technicians share one commitment -- to make sure all high-speed trains depart with zero faults.

"Since passenger traffic volume rockets during Spring Festival, trains wear down easily. We have to be extremely alert for glitches," said Wang.

"Parting with our families is worth it because our job concerns the safety of thousands of people," said Wang.

In Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China, bus driver Chen Jinru ate leftover dumplings from the previous evening's New Year's Eve dinner in a bus terminal at 8 a.m. the next day.

Chen had already logged two hours of work that day before finding time to fill his empty stomach.

"Bus drivers can never enjoy normal holidays because our job is to serve others. I am used to this and there is nothing to complain about," he said.