'I miss my family, but it's my choice to stay and work in Beijing'
We’ve
been in Beijing for about two years now. We’re originally from the north of
China, Heilongjiang, which isn’t far from Russia. It’s particularly cold in the
winter, with some of the coldest days falling around minus 40 degrees Celsius.
So weather wise, living in Beijing is much more comfortable than home.
I'm
in Beijing helping my sister who runs a busy restaurant and we also work in a
factory, which can be tough as there isn’t much freedom. We work ten hours a
day and get two days off a month. We’ve been given two weeks off for Spring
Festival, and last year we drove home, but now we’re about to board a train. In
about 22 hours time we’ll arrive home. We tried to buy tickets as soon as they
were released 18 days ago, but we didn't manage to get a spot with a bed so we
have hard seats. It seems almost impossible to buy a bed during this time as the
trains are so busy with people travelling home.
Plane
tickets now are also so much more expensive than other times of the year. We
looked at plane tickets, but it would have cost around 4,000RMB. Our train ticket
is cheap, less than 250RMB. The plane wouldn't have taken us directly home
anyway – we’d still have to take a train afterwards.
I
can't wait to see my family again. All
my family are home, and though I’m still young at 45, I’m already a grandma. I
miss my family, but it’s my choice to stay and work in Beijing with my little
sister. We all have mobile phones though, which makes it much easier to keep in
touch.
I only get to go home around once a year so
we really have to make the most of it. I don’t really have to travel home for
the new year but I should, because I know my family will be sad otherwise. My husband
will kill a pig and we’ll get the chance to eat, drink, relax, sing, dance and
smoke. I love to smoke, and probably smoke a packet a day. People ask me how
much I spend a year on cigarettes but I’d hate to think about it.