Leading a double life(2)

A passenger on the recently discontinued D9023 bullet train that ran from Beijing to Yanjiao. Photo: Li Hao/ GT

Although there are a large number of migrant workers who must make the daily commute between Yanjiao and Beijing, the line only ran once in the morning, and once in the evening, at times that would be inconvenient for a large number of potential commuters.

"The train is supposed to make commuting easier for white-collar workers, but they should be scheduled more frequently than just once a day," said Liu.

The express train has since been replaced by a temporary line between Yanjiao and Beijing East Railway Station that runs three times a day, but Liu said that she would not be taking it, as Beijing East Railway Station is nearly 1.5 kilometers away from the nearest subway station, Dawanglu on Subway Line 1. This makes it difficult for commuters like Liu to quickly get from the station to other parts of the city.

Liu said that she will return to taking a bus to and from work, a trip that, accounting for traffic congestion, usually takes around 90 minutes. She said she is not looking forward to having to again queue for the bus to return home. "Sometimes, I have to wait in line for up to an hour at Guomao [for the bus back to Yanjiao]," said Liu. "[But] I'm used to it now."

Sleeping town

Liu is the mother of a 5-month-old child. She said that she was worried about the lack of public resources available to families with children in Yanjiao compared to in Beijing, where she was born and raised.

"More and more residential compounds and apartment buildings have been built, but there are not enough supporting facilities like malls and schools," said Liu.

Chen shared Liu's concern. He said that apart from real estate, the availability of amenities like medical care, educational facilities, and transportation services were far from sufficient.

"The water quality is bad," said Chen. "And there are as many as 70 to 80 students in every [elementary school] class, due to lack of resources."

Jiang Sangeng, a professor of finance and head researcher at the Research Base of Central Business District Development, said that for most of its residents, Yanjiao served only as a transient home.

"Basically, Yanjiao is a temporary choice," said Jiang.

"People who are slightly better off usually choose to live in Beijing's Tongzhou district."

Jiang said that Yanjiao was built to help reduce the population burden in Beijing, but it remains a "sleeping town" with no industrial development of its own.

"Only those with no other choices, for example those who have just graduated from college, live in Yanjiao," said Jiang.

"But [many white-collar migrant workers in Yanjiao] will eventually move inside Beijing's Sixth Ring Road and later to downtown areas."

Both Liu and Chen said that they are determined to move back to Beijing when their financial situations allow.

"I'll consider Pinggu county or another suburban area in Beijing, where I can find a compromise between the cost of living and the convenience of transportation," said Chen.

Future development

Jiang said that companies usually care little for the difficulties endured by white-collar migrant workers, as they know that positions in Beijing would always be highly sought-after, no matter what sacrifices individuals have to make.

"Prospective employees will go wherever there are opportunities," he said.

A problem facing the development of satellite cities [like Yanjiao] is that [there are so many of them], which means that resources are distributed across a large number of areas, Jiang continued.

He suggested that if resources could be concentrated in order to develop a single, functional satellite city, migrant workers would benefit.

"We have a similar density of subway lines as major cities overseas, but what we don't have is direct, long-distance transport, which is crucial for the development of satellite cities like Yanjiao," said Jiang.

Nevertheless, Jiang was optimistic about conditions improving for Yanjiao's white-collar commuters.

"[In the future], there will be more transport options for Yanjiao's migrant residents," said Jiang.

Along with development proposals for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei economic region, said Jiang, the still-growing population of workers traveling from Yanjiao to Beijing will create an impetus for the introduction of more subway lines, making the long commute just a little easier.