The evening of February 3, after eating a bowl of large plate of chicken, Miao Hongtao to the noodle shop owner Ren Shanhu proposed: he and several take-away riders who can not return Home, can you book a New Year’s Eve dinner here? “All the five lakes and four seas can not return home for New Year’s Eve, there is what dish to eat. “
“The last few hours of business, home for the New Year, please come quickly to shop. “East Xindian Village, a grocery store, hanging in the doorway of the speaker repeatedly playing a recording. The day is February 4, the 23rd of the lunar month, the northern “small year”, is the day to prepare the New Year’s goods, the sacrifice of the stove. This grocery store has become the heaviest place in the village of Dongxindian.
The Epidemic is making a comeback this winter, and the sudden tightening of controls around the country has drawn a circle around people who had planned to return home for the Chinese New Year, keeping some of them in place.
Dongxindian Village, located in Cuijiazhuang Township, Chaoyang District, Beijing, is a typical “upside-down village” in Beijing, home to a large number of migrant workers. According to the Chaoyang District Government’s 2020 data, the household population in this area is only 1,167, while the floating population is 22,934, an “upside down” ratio of 1 to 19.7. According to migrant workers living in Dongxindian, rents in the village generally range from 1,000 to 1,500 yuan.
Local residents tell All Now that since about January, a “barrier” has been set up at the entrance of the village, requiring a pass to enter and exit, and a negative nucleic acid test report within seven days for those without a pass.
The village’s buildings are mainly two- and three-story bungalows, with the exterior walls painted yellow, and some houses have five or six families on one floor, each of which is a separate rental room. Near the Spring Festival, the village, however, almost no store in the sale of gift Food, Spring Festival, and other New Year’s goods, the national flag inserted everywhere, almost the only source of red in the village.
“Where are the red flags hanging at home, are hanging big red lanterns ah,” 65-year-old cleaner Li Yunhua pulled out his cell phone, leaning against the garbage truck, the village road while shooting video, while joking She sent the video to her relatives back home. She sent the video to the WeChat group of friends and relatives in her hometown, telling everyone that she couldn’t go back this year, and that she couldn’t go to the promised New Year’s dinner.
Li Yunhua has not been home for five years. She is a native of Anshan, Liaoning Province, some years ago in the hotel cleaning, even New Year’s Day only a few days of vacation. 2020, she became a cleaner in the village of East Xindian, early plans to shift home for the New Year, far from home daughter-in-law also bought her a train ticket home on the 28th of the lunar month. After hearing that she had to go back to isolation, she and her husband discussed returning the tickets and staying in Beijing.
“The taste of New Year at home is stronger than this, the 23rd (of the lunar month) can be lively”, Li Yunhua lamented. Several cleaning women of similar age in the same village also gathered around, exchanging memories of the taste of New Year in their hometown – “the big red lanterns hung high, the taste of New Year came, the small year began to set off firecrackers, clang clang “, “every Family poured rice and pressed flour to make rice cakes, 23rd to eat Zaotang, but also to send the Zaomen master to heaven! “
“If there is no epidemic, certainly go back.” Li Yunhua said.
“Return home certificate”
February 4, noon, the village road, a 30-year-old man dragging a silver suitcase hurriedly walked past. The road is not flat, and the hanging tag hanging on the suitcase undulates with the road. In recent times, “Have you done nucleic acid?” has become the mantra of acquaintances when they meet, followed by the phrase “Are you going home for the New Year”. In small restaurants, the owner, guests and delivery master are sharing information about nucleic acid testing sites, and the negative nucleic acid test certificate has become a paper “hometown permit”.
A guest from his hometown in Heilongjiang, after the checkout, told the boss about his own tangle – whether to go home for the New Year or not. According to the information he inquired about, there is a possibility of being centrally quarantined back home. After hearing the word “centralized quarantine”, the boss immediately suggested that he should not go back, but the guest added that it might just be home. The boss immediately changed his attitude and said, “It’s good to go home and stay there.
Wang Fen, who has been operating a marinated snack store in Dongxindian Village for 15 years, told All Now that many migrant workers in Dongxindian Village have experienced this tangle in the past half month.
On January 20 the National health Commission issued a news release, stipulating that rural areas “after returning home to implement 14 days of home health monitoring,” “during the period of no gathering, no movement, every 7 days to carry out nucleic acid testing”. However, eleven days later, the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism Integrated Group issued “six no-no’s”, which forbade local governments to implement home-health monitoring policies. “layers and layers” and “one size fits all It is expressly stipulated that “no centralized and home quarantine measures will be implemented for people returning to their hometowns “, “no nucleic acid testing for non-focused people who move across provinces to cities from low-risk areas”. Wang Fen revealed that after the initial release of the news, many migrant workers in the village do not intend to return home, see the policy has become loose, the attitude has once again flipped. At present, some people have returned home, while others, like her, are still waiting to see how the policy and the epidemic will change.
Wang Fen’s hometown is Yanjiao, Hebei province, just 40 minutes away by car. Her two children go to school in Beijing and her family of four lives in Dongxindian Village. In past years, she would go home for the Spring Festival, but she felt that staying in Beijing did not matter much, “after living in Beijing for so long, it’s almost like home.
Zhao Jiao Sheng, 28, is one of those people who will definitely go home for the New Year no matter how the policy changes. His wife and 9-year-old son are back home in Shanxi, so he goes home at least twice a year, and during the summer holidays, his wife also brings his son to Beijing. In a year, the family lives together for only about three months.
Zhao Jiao-sheng is a take-away rider, working about ten hours a day. He intends to stay at home until the 15th day of the lunar calendar and spend Time with his son. He told the whole now his Spring Festival holiday plan: “Eat, drink and have fun for half a month, then come back and earn money. “East Xindian Village is adjacent to Wangjing, the latter is a cluster of commercial office buildings, a large demand for take-out, East Xindian Village also attracted a lot of take-out riders to land.
The aisles of the rental house bungalows and the open spaces in the village are horizontally and vertically parked with electric cars. Their trunk is mostly an insulated box, printed with the familiar takeaway, flash delivery brand. A week away from the Spring Festival in the afternoon, these electric cars did not run on the road, but quietly parked in the village, some of them the owner has left Beijing.
“People are clamoring to go home. Zhao Jiao-sheng found that after the introduction of the “six no-no’s,” East Xindian village less people, he himself bought February 9, the lunar calendar twenty-eight tickets home.
Looking at the remaining people in the village less and less, janitor Wang Juxiang muttered softly: “I do not know where they are going”. Her hometown is in Heilongjiang. A few days ago, she learned from the village’s WeChat group, her hometown requires that all people returning home from abroad are isolated, do not go back if you can, someone’s door was even locked.
The road home is far and long, and there are several changes of cars in the middle. Wang Juxiang thought about it, but she was more afraid of getting the virus on the way, which would not bother her, but would be bad for her granddaughter at home. Because of the epidemic, she did not go home last Spring Festival, her granddaughter was born on the sixth day of the first month of 2020, “now can walk, we have not seen it”. Wang Juxiang misses her child, but ultimately decided not to return. When her son called, she only said sullenly: “I still can’t go back.
East Xindian village on the other side, Shanxi Ren Shanhu also just cut off the idea of going home for the New Year. These two days, he has been calling the county home district property, the other side of the reply is strong and clear: there is a negative nucleic acid certificate must also be isolated, home 14 days, the family will be restricted from entering and leaving the community gate. He thought, a return to isolation 28 days, can not do anything, a month of 6500 yuan of rent will be lost, not cost-effective.
Ren Shanhu, who is over 50 years old, and his brother operate a noodle shop in Dongxindian Village. Ten days ago, the brother and another villager have returned home to the countryside with a paper nucleic acid test negative certificate. Ren Shanhu heard that his brother was only instructed to stay home as much as possible, while the door of the other villager’s house was locked. Good and bad news intertwined, making him more and more restless and confused, and finally decided not to go back.
Zhao Jiao-sheng, who was eating dinner at Ren Shanhu’s store, fought against the situation: “You just have to have a nucleic acid test (negative proof), he has no right to isolate”. Recently, Zhao Jiao Sheng repeatedly study the policy of returning to isolation, but also with the village phone to confirm. He advised Ren Shanhu to argue with the property on grounds. Ren Shanhu shook his head and sighed: county and rural policies are also different, every day the situation is changing, and a place a class, “different neighborhoods say different things.”
“Grandma, you want me why not go home ah? “
After 10 p.m., outside Ren Shanhu’s Shanxi noodle shop, one after another, the electric bikes of take-out riders stopped. The riders just finished delivering a day’s meal, and can finally sit down and eat dinner slowly – they brush short videos while sucking up a big bowl of noodles, and then sit for a while longer to continue playing with their phones after eating. There are also three or two people who come together, order a few beers, chatting about how many orders they have delivered and what difficult customers they have encountered.
It was the 23rd of the lunar month, the small year in the north, Shaanxi Miao Jiangtao sent the last single take-out, back to the East Xindian, take off the gloves into the noodle shop, he and three other roommates rented in an upstairs room of about 10 square meters, amortized down to just over 400 yuan per month rent per person.
The rented room does not even have a table, his dinner is basically settled in the noodle shop, he likes to order a large plate of chicken, and every time do not forget to drink a bottle or two of beer. After working for more than ten hours, drinking allows him to fall asleep quickly, so that he can rest well and continue on the road the next day.
In previous years, at this time, he had already started to prepare to go home. After the Spring Festival homecoming policy out, Miao Jiangtao decided not to go back – home isolation 14 days, came to isolate 14 days again, “that more delay things “. Last year’s Spring Festival epidemic is serious, he has been in his hometown to stay until March was allowed to return to Beijing. This time not back, at least still can earn some money, in addition to running orders during the Spring Festival, but also have 300 yuan a day duty fee.
But if you can return, he will not stay in Beijing for New Year’s Eve, “outside the hard work of a year, it is impossible to earn two or three thousand dollars more for these days will not go home. “
Miao Jiangtao 32 years old, the New Year for him, has long passed the lively energy of childhood. In recent years, the same village partners rarely go home for New Year’s Eve, less people, “there is no meaning.
However, after having a daughter, the New Year has a new attachment for him. Daughter born in October 2019, his last Spring Festival home only to see on, that is also the only time to get along with his daughter. Usually he always wants his daughter, but the child went to bed at nine o’clock at night, he got off work at ten o’clock, and rushed to deliver delivery during the day, at most in the single less rest gap or weekend, to see the child through the video.
Miao Jiangtao almost the same day, running single accounted for most of his waking hours, the rest is to eat, sleep, brush the phone, the family’s daughter is growing rapidly, and now already speak simple words. Miao Jiangtao wants to hear the word “dad”, but the child always needs to be taught by his daughter-in-law before he can call out.
Late at night, the noodle shop owner Ren Shanhu still does not want to close. After his brother went back home, he recruited a temporary worker and did not dare to rest for a day. After years of coming to Beijing, Ren Shanhu opened a store in Daxing before moving to Dongxindian Village six months ago. Last year’s experience left him with palpitations. Last year, on the 23rd of the lunar month, he rushed back home before the outbreak of the epidemic, but he did not expect to stay for half a year before returning to Beijing in June, and the first thing he did was to pay almost 10,000 yuan in rent. The rent was relatively cheap in Daxing, but later moved to Dongxindian in time for the demolition, and the rent went up several times, but business has not been good. He thought, this year can no longer afford to lose money.
In his old home in Shanxi, his wife lives with his grandchildren and two elderly people. Son and daughter-in-law work in a factory in Taiyuan, intends to earn three times the salary, and then return home on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. Ren Shanhu and his friends back home chatted in WeChat and complained, and they advised him to come back, the money is inexhaustible. He is a little helpless: out of doors, their own difficult only they know.
Wang Juxiang, a cleaning lady, has not received her salary for four months. 2020, her work has had several twists and turns, and the job she found at the beginning of the year was scrapped because of the epidemic, and then she did all kinds of odd jobs – cleaning public toilets, helping the neighboring village committee, as long as she could earn some money.
After three years in Beijing, Wang Juxiang has been doing all kinds of cleaning work and has never been back home for New Year’s Eve. She remembers that in the first year, her monthly salary was more than 2,000, and she did not go back because she did not earn any money after taking out the rent, so she was “embarrassed to go back”; in the second year, her salary was higher, but she did not go back because of the epidemic. This year, she was restricted by the epidemic policy and had no money.
The villagers on the sidelines frowned: Yes, the money was not earned and they had no face to go back. A woman from Hebei said: “My granddaughter asked me, “Grandma, do you miss me? You say I how to answer.” “After the virus, come back ah,” Wang Juxiang bitterly smiled and answered. “This epidemic, ah, is also helping us to give sloppy eyes! “
On January 20, Chen Yongjia, deputy director of the Department of Employment Promotion of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said at a press conference on the State Council’s joint prevention and control mechanism, will guide local organizations to organize various forms of “send warmth ” and collective New Year’s activities, to encourage enterprises to issue “stay-at-home red packets”, “New Year’s gift package”. “New Year’s gift package”, arrange cultural and recreational activities, and implement good wages, leave and other treatment protection. Through warm-hearted initiatives, so that workers stay in their place of employment to spend the Spring Festival without fear.
As a housekeeper in a private restaurant, Wang Juxiang could not get the Spring Festival benefits. The year is almost over, she only hope that the salary down quickly, so that the money to send WeChat red envelopes to distant granddaughters. She is a bit envious of her husband who is doing sanitation work, the usual wage of more than three thousand, not as high as her in the hotel, but the victory in stability, “I do not know if they will send red packets, but the New Year’s holiday, at least some rice, flour and oil. “
The husband will continue to work on the night of New Year’s Eve. Wang Juxiang plans to go to the supermarket during the day to buy some meat, with the flour developed to wrap dumplings, waiting for her husband to come home to eat a reunion dinner, the year is also considered to be over.
Looking for the taste of New Year
The grocery store of Shi Hongyu, a Shanxi native, is located at the edge of Dongxindian village. A red and gray sports jacket and a pair of black leather pants are his “outfit” for the New Year. -In his hometown, most people would buy new clothes, but in Beijing, he doesn’t care about it.
Above the cashier’s desk, a small bag of red envelopes hangs, and Shi Hongyu points to them, saying that they are two years old and have not yet been sold. Therefore, his store does not sell any “New Year” goods.
In the entire village of Dongxindian, there are almost no merchants selling gift food, spring couplets and other New Year’s goods. Some foreigners who do not go home for the Spring Festival told the whole now, they did not prepare New Year’s goods, wait until the New Year, go to the supermarket to buy some food and drink on the line.
Shi Hongyu pulled out a box of cigarettes priced at 6.5 yuan from the cashier, “Here live the poor”. He feels that the “poor” will not spend extra money to celebrate the New Year. What’s more, the past year was not good, because of the epidemic, many foreigners living in Dongxindian Village did not return to Beijing until May, and the recurrence of the epidemic at the end of the year also directly affects their income, Shi Hongyu in the last month on a loss of 800 yuan.
This is also the reason why Shi Hongyu decided not to go home. Last year a whole year down, the real business time is really only about half a year, he is worried that after going home, and then back to the capital will have to home isolation for fourteen days – which means half a month just to pay the rent but can not do business.
“Without it, it will not work. “Shi Hongyu picked up his phone, which was on a stand, and shook it, his only pastime while watching the store on weekdays. On WeChat, he can chat with his wife back home, and his daughter, who is married. The store is the front store and the back of the house pattern, from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm every day. According to his plan, the seven-day Spring Festival holiday work and rest is also roughly the same.
“The taste of New Year, there is in the old home, this is Beijing, this place does not talk about anything. “Shi Hongyu remembered the taste of New Year in his hometown – the streets are full of what to sell New Year’s goods, set up food stalls, selling dried fruit, drinks, and get a variety of meat stalls such as chicken, duck and fish, children will play firecrackers. Once on the street, full of the atmosphere of the New Year.
“Where to buy couplets and New Year paintings? ” Li Yunhua and her old sisters, who are cleaners, stood on the main road in Dongxindian Village, sweeping the floor and discussing how to live out the New Year in Beijing. As housewives who are used to making arrangements, they still want this Chinese New Year to be as decent as possible.
Traditionally, when it comes to Chinese New Year, food is a must. Li Yunhua counts on her fingers: “We eat dumplings on the first day, pancakes on the second day, and fish, elbows and pork claws on the night of New Year’s Eve. The old sisters on the side smilingly answer: “Yes, yes, yes, the most important thing is to figure out some auspicious words, pig claws scratch money, eat fish year after year, but also eat lettuce, meaning the birth of wealth, eat balls means reunion! “
At the end of the road, the first time alone for New Year’s Eve, Ren Shanhu is still headache New Year’s Eve plans: “the most difficult is the New Year’s Eve, I eat alone what ah? He imagined that the family’s Chinese New Year will be early out a few small cold dishes: roasted bamboo, peanuts, several pots, when you want to eat, you can always take out some. On New Year’s Eve, fish stew at noon, dumplings in the evening, on the Spring Festival dinner and then eat slowly.
Without his family, the taste of New Year is missing, Ren Shanhu lost interest in New Year’s food. He plans to do something random, or simply buy some melon seeds, apples, get a little wine, sit there and get high on melon seeds, watch the Spring Festival dinner on your phone.
On the evening of February 3, after eating a bowl of chicken, Miao Hongtao proposed to Ren Shanhu: he and several delivery riders who could not return home, can you book a New Year’s Eve dinner here? Ren Shanhu intended to close from the 28th of the lunar month to rest, listened to this proposal, a mouthful should be down, “two tables together, to sit there, in advance to me to order good food, or under a few dumplings, we are also done with this year. “
“All the five lakes can not return home for New Year’s Eve, when we eat this New Year’s Eve dinner with the boss, what dishes to eat. “After drinking the last sip of beer, Miao Jiangtao intend to take advantage of the strength of the wine, hurry back to lie down, temporarily do not want anything.
(In the article Wang Fen, Li Yunhua, Wang Juxiang, Shi Hongyu is a pseudonym)
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