With Spring Festival just a couple weeks away, time to remind any first-time Laowai to be careful as they venture out in what must be the world’s largest annual mass-migration.
Despite being one of the larger stories on Chinese-language news channels, little has been mentioned externally about an accident in Wuhu, Anhui, on January 13, where a female college student was cut in half by a train.
Leng Jing, a third year student at Anhui Normal University, was waiting on the Wuhu station platform for the train that would have taken her home to Fuyang for the holidays.
As is common practice this time of year, tickets for the train were grossly oversold to accommodate the disproportionate number of travellers. For the 400 seats available on the train, about 600 were sold – causing the platform to be immensely over packed as trains arrived.
Because many ticket holders didn’t have an actual seat number, as is common for the “hard seat” class of cars, when the train slowly approached the station many people began to elbow their way to the front of the crowd in hopes of getting a coveted seat.
In the scrum Leng was pushed and fell beneath the still moving train and was slowly cut in two.
Though train station officials have been fired in response to this incident – it is surely not going to solve the problem. With filial and familial piety in direct conflict with economically booming areas; geography, population and a limited number of government enforced holidays are going to continue on their collision course for disaster.
Please, be safe. If you are travelling by train, be sure to get a seat (denoted on your ticket by the car number followed by the seat number – ##车（上/下）###å· – on the right side of your ticket, below your destination). Once you have the seat, just let the crowd pass in front of you and avoid the rush, riot and risk that is incumbent for travel at this time of year.
This is why I fly during holidays.
This is why you should take your vacations BEFORE or AFTER the national holidays.
If you can. As a teacher that’s not always possible.
Hi, do avoid the national day as it is very busy and crowded.