Leading a double life

Each day, thousands of white-collar migrant workers make the long commute from Yanjiao to Beijing's CBD for work. Photo: Li Hao/GT

The daily grind of white-collar laborers living in Beijing's migrant worker outpost of Yanjiao

Pushing through the revolving doors of her Guomao office building, boots squeaking on the shiny marble floor, Jessica Jiang heads straight for the bathroom.

She kicks off her snowshoes and thick overcoat, replacing them with a business suit and heels. Standing in front of the mirror, she carefully applies some lipstick to complete the transformation, from humble migrant to white-collar urbanite.

"Everything changes when I walk into the office building," said Jiang, 29, who works in finance. "I need to look professional to compete in the workplace."

Every morning, Jiang makes an hour-long commute on a crowded bus from Yanjiao, a small town in Hebei Province on the border of Beijing's Tongzhou district, to her office in the capital's CBD (Central Business District).

Jiang is one of an estimated 300,000 inhabitants in the town - most of whom are from less economically developed parts of the country - who make the daily commute to Beijing for work.

An agricultural commune until the early 1980s, Yanjiao is now home to a large migrant workforce who make their living in Beijing, but are unable or unwilling to afford rent or the high cost of living in the capital. Besides factory workers and menial laborers, many of Yanjiao's migrant populations are white-collar workers.

Jiang, who is originally from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, shares a small rented apartment in Yanjiao with her boyfriend. Few who encounter her in the course of her professional life would suspect the humble circumstances of her home life.

"I don't think my job is a glamorous one. Even though I'm in a fancy office building, I'm at the bottom of the food chain," said Jiang. "But I still feel lucky, because it's better than what many people have."

Making Yanjiao home

Chen Wenbin, 33, is another white-collar worker living in Yanjiao who must commute daily to Beijing's CBD for work, watching the landscape transform from a dilapidated town into a metropolitan hub from the window of a bus.

"I used to be quite a proud person, but the difficulties I've experienced between my work life and home life have made me humble," said Chen, who works as an automobile engineer in an office in Jianwai SOHO. "We're all migrant workers [in Yanjiao], and I don't feel as I'm superior to anyone else here just because I work in a white-collar profession."

Chen said that he has no emotional connection or sense of belonging in Beijing, and only sees the city as a place that he can make money to support his family. "People are distant from each other," he said.

Unlike most of the young people living in Yanjiao, Chen was born and raised in the migrant town. When he first started working in Beijing, he moved into a tiny 10-square meter room in the city near Beitucheng Station on Subway Line 10.

"[It] was old and shabby, with broken furniture and leaking floors."

But in 2011, with the rent rising, Chen decided to return to Yanjiao, taking out a mortgage for a 67-square meter apartment.

Chen bought a car in 2013, but he said he seldom uses it to go to work due to the high cost of parking fees. Instead, Chen most often takes the bus to get to the office; he said that unlicensed carpooling was a common form of transport for Yanjiao's migrant workers to get to places of work.

Despite the long commute from his home to Beijing's CBD which is about 40 kilometers, Chen said that his living conditions now were by far preferable.

Long commute

Amid a sea of migrant workers carrying stuffed canvas bags and suitcases at Beijing Railway Station preparing to return to their hometowns for the Spring Festival holidays, Liu Lin stands out with her small purse and dainty attire. For Liu, who lives in Yanjiao and works at a telecommunications company in Beijing's CBD, it is just a day like any other.

At 5:50 pm, Liu boards the D9023 express train along with 50 or so other white-collar workers. The train is the only express line that runs directly from Beijing to Yanjiao.

Launched in mid January, it ceased operations on February 1, due to what Liu suspects was a lack of demand.

She said that on the first day the train ran, it was packed, but since then, there have only been a few regular passengers.