China's Woe from Modernisation

Ray

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CHANGE THE SYSTEM
Neha Sahay

A migrant worker's letter to the ministry of railways has raised a fundamental question: do the 250 million workers, who leave their villages to build the country's glittering cities, feature in the government's planning? According to the latest census, they constitute about 20 per cent of the population.

The Chinese New Year falls on Monday. The rush to go home began more than a month ago. To prevent black-marketing and ease the process of buying tickets, the railway ministry introduced online and phone buying. That, however, automatically made going home more difficult for those who value it the most. Frustrated at his failure to get a ticket after four attempts at the station, where he was told that online sales had exhausted their supply, 37-year-old Huang Qinghong wrote an angry letter to the ministry and gave it to a local paper which published it in full.

"I really want to swear at the stupid ministry,'' writes Huang, recounting how none of his 40 colleagues at the hardware factory where he is a driver could get a ticket. When their boss tried to help them with online bookings, he too failed — either he couldn't access the system or there were no tickets available. Even had he succeeded, they couldn't have used the system, for it required internet banking. "We migrant workers are not white collars (sic), how can we possibly know how to open Internet banking?'' writes Huang. "Whoever came up with the online booking idea, were they thinking with their toes? The leaders of the Ministry of Railways, you surf on the Internet all the time and buy whatever you want, but we cannot, we still have to worry about dinner everyday.''

Very unfair

The workers did try phone booking, but after many days of making calls after work, only one of them succeeded, making him the envy of the rest. "Buying a ticket is similar to lottery,'' writes Huang. It was not so earlier — all it needed was the determination to spend days and nights at the railway station. "It was about physical stamina. For us the online booking is too complicated and too impractical. In fact, it's just very unfair, as it takes away all our chances. You may say, 'It's easy, just learn to use a computer.' But for us who are busy working all day long, how do we get the time? And how can we afford a computer?''

Huang has been working in the city for 20 years, going home only every two years because of the effort involved. This year, his wife went home a month earlier. Huang didn't want to lose a month's salary, nor does he want to buy a bus ticket which costs three times the train fare, because he wants to save up to buy his six-year-old a new year gift. "I haven't seen my daughter for a long time. I wonder whether she has grown taller, and how many words she can read now,'' writes Huang.

No place

The letter ends with this rebuke: "Queuing for a ticket during the New Year rush has been a yearly torture for us migrant workers; but this year, even this torture is not possible any more. When you leaned back on your couches in your air-conditioned offices, drank some tea, smoked some cigarettes, and came up with this online booking, did it ever occur to you what this meant to us? Have you ever experienced the pain of getting a ticket? We can't even get a standing-room ticket for a journey of tens of hours home. What we only have is the anger about the unfairness but with no place to take it out.'' The newspaper that published Huang's letter bought him a ticket home. But what of the million others in his situation? It's time to change the system so that migrants can settle with their families wherever they work, writes the official China Daily.

Change the System
This article caught my eye after I read April Lyrics hassle going back home for the Spring Festiaval.

A case of modernisation in a hurry?
 

mylegend

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I heard it actually easier to get ticket now because black market is almost gone due to the new system. However, the railway ministry is a problem indeed. The website they develop works but it is like a joke.

Spring Festival Transportation is a big problem in China. In 2011, the railway ministry move 210,000,000 people in 40 days Spring Festival Period. That is a average of 5.75 million people per day... It is about 12.5% more than 2010. The increased compacity is due to increased rail speed and more train on the rail. However, still many people get not get a ticket, so they have to take the long-distance bus... Keep in mind, in China, you can not take the train on top of the train...

Another problem is the rail-way industry did not do any stress-test before the release of the website... They also give the designing work to its subsidiary instead of more competent company. Railway ministry also should release the website way-ahead of the holiday... so people can get used to it.
 
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Ray

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Mylegend,

Because there are large migrant workers from other parts of China, every national festival causes this type of disruption, agony and heartbreaks.

Imagine a person works hard but cannot go home because the railway system cannot cope with the passenger traffic.

This happens all the time.

In India, during the festivals or during the holiday season, they run holiday specials (special trains to cater for the rush).

If there are more trains and so more seats during the holiday season/ festivals, the website will be able to cater for seats during the rush.

I don't think that it is the website that is the problems, it is the number of trains being run that is not planned to take the excess passenger traffic during these festivals.

Just my thoughts!
 
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mylegend

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There is more train during holiday in China too, and according to my knowledge, Chinese train density is about twice of India. However, the amount of people that the train transport is about the same, and amount of commercial goods transport is at least 4 times of India. Even in the holiday, many train still ship goods instead of people. Although, I guess for many people, they don't mind to get on commercial goods train, but I guess it is not safe. It also take time to change commercial train into passenger one. I do think many migrant workers will not mind taking commercial train, new year is such a important holiday.
 

Ray

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Our freight division is totally separate from the passenger division.

We just ensure the passenger trains are more!

The freight continues unhindered.
 

nimo_cn

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Country flag
1> China doesn't have enough railway.
2> The imbalance of industry density from east region to west region forces people to leave their hometown to work in a place far away from hometown.

Solutions
1> build more HSR railway
2>encourage industry to move west
 

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