Society
Travelers make final stretch for reunions
By He Na (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-12 07:20
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Nanzhou is famous for its marble sculptures. Masonry shops line the streets of towns throughout the county, including Nanhedian. The roads, damaged by heavy-duty trucks, are badly worn and it was a bumpy bus ride. Despite his attempts to appear fresh and energetic, Li was clearly fatigued as he neared his final destination. He had enjoyed little sleep since he left Beijing almost 20 hours before.
"I am almost there," he whispered to himself as he stared blankly through the window.
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 The Li family eats lunch following daughter Jingjing's return from school. |
The driver had barely applied the brakes when Li was rushing to a woman in a thick, green jacket cradling a cute baby in her arms. All the tiredness seemed to drain from his face. The brightness returned to his eyes and a huge smile spread across his face. "The dammed driver drove so slowly," Li complained to his wife, then immediately cooed to his child: "Oh, my son, you must have waited for a long time? Do you feel cold?"
With his heavy bags on the ground, Li tried to take 2-year-old Li Chenchen in his arms but the boy clutched his mother tightly and buried his face in her shoulder. Li hid his sorrow with joviality: "He's just like a girl, shy with strangers. He's really grown a lot since I last saw him."
His wife, Zhang Zhe, said the couple's 9-year-old daughter, Jingjing, was at school and would rejoin the family for lunch. Under China's family-planning policy, farmers in the countryside can have a second child if their firstborn is a girl.
After much effort, Li's bulky luggage was finally strapped onto the back of the family's motorbike with a long rope. The father drove and the wife sat behind holding their baby.
Temperatures in Central China, including Henan, regularly drop below zero in winter. On the day of Li's return, the area was experiencing a strong, icy wind. On the bumpy country roads, the ride took about 20 minutes.
Li and Zhang, both farmers from Henan, first met in Beijing in 1999. "I was working as a waitress in a restaurant, while he was on a construction site nearby," said Zhang, 33, as the couple relaxed back at home.
They fell in love, married and had Jingjing before saving enough money to return to their native province in 2007 and build a simple, two-bedroom home. Chenchen was born later that year.
"The house is almost the same as when I left in June," said Li after wandering the house for a few minutes. "I have dreamed of coming back. In Beijing, I lived in a prefabricated hut and slept on a wide bed with a number of other people. The hut is stifling hot in summer and extremely cold in winter."
Back in his familiar environment, Chenchen was much more relaxed but still hid behind his mother when Li reached out to grab him. However, the ice was not so much broken as smashed to pieces when Li unpacked the skateboard he had bought his son in the capital.
"I saw many kids playing with skateboards in Beijing, so I bought one for my son for 45 yuan ($6) in a market next to my construction site," said the father as he showed his son how to use his new toy. "I also got him a plastic toy gun and a jacket that I saw a lot of Beijing kids wearing."
Li then passed a bulging bag to his wife. Inside were colorful clothes, sweaters and trousers. "Li always brings lots of things for me, but besides cigarettes he never spends a penny on new clothes for himself," said Zhang.
"She often complains that the clothes I bring are out of date," joked Li with a smile. "Life is not easy for a woman with two kids. I planned to give her a tight hug when I got off the bus, but this is not Beijing and people would have probably laughed at us."
Li's parents are dead and Zhang stays at home fulltime to care for their children. His monthly salary of 1,500 yuan is the family's only source of income. Li said he gets only 200 yuan in "pocket money" and spends about 600 on gifts. The rest he saves.
Spring Festival is an expensive time for Chinese. Each person should have a new set of clothes for the occasion, while families often splash out on large banquets. But the visits that must be paid to relatives are the most costly part of the holidays.
"You will be shamed if you visit someone's house without taking a gift," said Li, who put aside about 4,000 yuan for the New Year budget this year. "The rest of the money will go towards my family's living expenses and my travel back to Beijing after Spring Festival."
To welcome her husband home, Zhang began to prepare four dishes for lunch. While his wife does this, Li walked 10 minutes to wait outside the village school gates for Jingjing. But when the bell ran and children began to pour out of the school, Li strained to scan the crowd and cursed himself for forgetting to ask what clothes his daughter was wearing.
