100,000 migrant workers go home by motorcycles from Guangdong

The Year of the Tiger is approaching; the migrant workers are returning their hometowns for the Spring Festival. On the Zhaoqing section of the 321 national highway, the motorcycle team, composed of migrant workers riding like the wind along the road, with their baggage piled behind them, or with their wives on the back, and sometimes even their children sandwiched between their mother and father, joyously returned home for New Year.

Migrant workers go home by motorcycles from Guangdong

At 9:30 am, in Zhaoqing Gao Yao Xiao Xiang Zhongliang gas station, the motorcycles arriving one by one were introduced to the "long-distance motorcycle rest stop" by the traffic police. As one wave ended, another came, and within half an hour hundreds of motorcycles were gathered at the rest stop.

According to Gan Shuibo, the traffic police detachment captain, during the motorcycle return period, the peak number has risen from more than 500 vehicles per day at beginning of the Spring Festival travel season to nearly 6,000 motorcycles, so it is not an easy task to ensure the motorcycle teams are warm and safe on their travels. At the gas station rest stops, hot tea, ginger porridge, lean meat porridge, sugar water, raincoats, and umbrellas are all provided for free, even including a convenient medical kit and quick repair tools.

Zhaoqing is the major artery from the Pearl River Delta to the southwestern provinces in China such as Guangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan, is one of the busiest highways during the Spring Festival travel in Guangdong. Local traffic police expect that 100,000 migrant workers will ride motorcycles across Zhaoqing to return home for the Spring Festival this year.

The entire process should take about 10-20 hours riding motorcycles from the Pearl River Delta to Guangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan. Only the riders themselves know the hardship of the journey along the way. According to the traffic police, the rest areas provide 24-hours services for the motorcycle riders. If the riders encounter low visibility and bad weather such as rain and fog, police will lead the way at low-speed, and with a loudspeaker they will broadcast appeals to drivers to slow down. In some sections in Zhaoqing, the local traffic police department set up more than 10 long-distance motorcycle rest areas to prevent fatigue from causing accidents.