With an aging ridership and canceled routes, China’s intercity buses struggle to survive
“Qidong! Qidong! Going to Qidong? All aboard! We’re leaving…” a female attendant hails me from a bus stop as I step off the No. 115 intracity bus at Huaxin Coach Station in Hengyang, Hunan province. It awakens in me a familiar feeling, both sad and happy: I’ll be home soon, though it’s a bumpy ride of over 110 kilometers or three hours ahead to my home village in Buyunqiao town, Qidong county, usually on a standing-room only coach where people jump on and off along the way.
This 29-seat bus, one of several that cumulatively run 30 times a day from Hengyang to the city’s Qidong county, has been my most reliable means of traveling home over the last two decades. From the time I started college in downtown Hengyang, then found work in Shenzhen and Beijing, and until the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, I made this trip at least once or twice a year. I often traveled during the National Day and Lunar New Year holidays, along with other students and workers going home.
Last Bus Home: Are China’s Coach Services Doomed? is a story from our issue, “After the Factory.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine.
Tan Yunfei is the editorial director of The World of Chinese. She reports on Chinese language, food, traditions, and society. Having grown up in a rural community and mainly lived in the cities since college, she tries to explore and better understand China's evolving rural and urban life with all readers.
