YU Jie is one of the lucky ones. The 21-year-old Shanghai hotel waitress boarded a train early yesterday on her way home hoping to arrive before Sunday, the Spring Festival, for a family reunion. "It was so hard to get a train ticket. I had to divide my journey into two, from Shanghai to Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, and then from Wuhan to Yueyang, a city in Hunan Province," said Yu, one of millions of people heading home to visit their parents for the lunar New Year. Traditionally, those living apart from their parents return home during the festival period. To encourage this, China's newly revised law on the elderly's rights says that from July 1 this year, people living apart from elderly parents should visit them often and employers should guarantee their rights and opportunities to do so. Shen Guoming, an expert with the Shanghai Institute of Legislation, said the proposal was first initiated by the public. China has 250 million migrant workers and most of them have only one opportunity to go home during the Spring Festival. Others may not have a chance during the whole year. "Going home" has become a national puzzle, due to Chinese employment rules, railway capacity, weather and even the online ticketing system. Yu said: "This year, I tried to buy a train ticket on the Internet, but got nothing. Then a colleague tried more than 100 times to call the ticketing phone number and finally bought me a ticket." Because of the online ticketing system, Yu had to go home alone, as her friends did not get tickets on the same train. "We have to go home separately. Some have had to spend 1,000 yuan (US$160) on a plane ticket, which equates to half a month's salary," she said. Only half the hotel's 100 employees will go home before the lunar New Year's eve, while the other half will have to wait until after the festival. But the good news is that the hotel owner also arranges for staff to go home every summer. The "two home visits" system is rare for hotels in big cities. "On the morning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, I will give each of my parents one red envelope," Yu said. The happiest thing for her, she said, is that she can give her parents more than 10,000 yuan a year now. "All of it is saved from my daily expenses. I feel much better when I go home to eat and chat with my parents and brother." |
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