The new way of life—Life in twin cities

Zhang Yukun is a teacher who is 24 years old and works for one year. He gets up from 5 am to 5:30 every morning, goes out at 6 o'clock after washing, and then drives to Beijing to go to work. From home to work, he usually drives for three hours, about 6-7 hours a day. "Sometimes after work, there are no cars on the way back, it will make people feel very empty." He said that the reason why he chose to live in a twin city is because the pressure of life in Beijing is too huge. If you rent a house in Beijing, you have to pay more than 3,000 rents per month. This makes him feel unaffordable if his salary is not high. What’s more he was a Tianjin native, so he want to live in Tianjin. Zhang Yukun also thought about looking for a job in his hometown, but when he thought about it, he felt that he was still very young. He hoped that he could make a difference. So he chose to come to Beijing to work hard to realize his dream.

Of course, since Zhang needs to travel back and forth between Tianjin and Beijing every day, the monthly fuel bill is also a small expenditure. But he said, first of all, his family lives in the suburbs of Tianjin, and there is no subway near his home, there are very few buses, and the neighbors are basically car or walking when they want to go outside. Because it is far from the city, if you choose to take the subway and intercity train every day, you need to transfer many times, and it takes more than 2 hours. Zhang thinks this is very troublesome. Although the monthly fuel bill will be more, but I commute to work every day, listen to music on the road, blow the air, watch many Tianjin cars and go to the same direction - Beijing, I feel not so lonely. Sometimes it makes sense to think about it.

Zhang is also a part-time teacher at a training institution on weekends, earning more money to meet the needs of life. Zhang said that his biggest problem now is that he spends too little time sleeping every day. Sometimes I have to write a lesson plan for the night, and I can sleep for about 4 hours. Parents are getting older, and they don't want him to continue to travel between these two cities. "I can understand my parents' thoughts. After all, they are 60 years old, and my father got a stalk last year. They need my company very much. But if I stay in Tianjin, I may not be able to earn my current salary. And my sense of accomplishment is definitely not high now. Now my parents will be very proud when they go out to chat with others and talk about me. So I still want to continue this struggle. My small goal in recent years is to pay for the down payment of the house, and then change the car by the way, now this one is not very easy to drive."

Zhang Lusong lives in Hexi District, Tianjin, and now works for a lending institution in Beijing. He was 23 years old and work for one year. Zhang Lusong's daily travel mode is basically subway and intercity trains, because his home is not too far from Tianjin station. If you take the subway, it will take up to 40 minutes, and the intercity time is half an hour. But when it comes to Beijing, the real challenge begins. His company is far from Beijing South Railway Station. He needs to transfer to the 3 subway station, which takes about an hour and a half. If the early morning traffic is not good, there will be a lot of people. Maybe you can't go to the subway, you need to wait a few more to get up, which adds time. “Especially in the summer, every time I go to the company, I am sweating.” This also makes Zhang want to give up. But this idea is just a flash. The high intensity of the work made him have no extra time to think. In addition, he feels that his life is very fulfilling. Although he has a lot more to work than people who work and live in a city, Zhang said, “Working in another city will make you more independent. When you encounter something, you will want to solve it in the first place, instead of relying on your family and always be a child. This is also a must-have growth process for a man."

The city of Beijing is full of temptation and attraction. Even if it is not good in the air, the city is congested, and the consumption is expensive, Zhang is still willing to choose it, and will continue to choose it later, because this is where Zhang dreams began. “I chose to live in Tianjin because I felt that my parents are getting older and I wants to be with my parents every day.” Zhang said that Tianjin people have a commonality—they are not in love with their parents. The place that makes them feel very insecure. Beijing is the best choice, close to home and a place full of opportunities. Such "two-city life" is undoubtedly the best choice.

Cheng Wei, 32, is now a doctoral student at Tianjin Normal University. Prior to this, he was a university counselor who traveled to Hangzhou and Tongxiang every day. "At the time of work, the school had a bus to pick up the teacher. So, I got up at 6 o'clock every day. I took the bus to the campus of Tongxiang at around 7:00, and the commute time was about 4-6 hours a day."

"I don't think the life in the Twin Cities is completely exhausting and hard. I thinks this is a very interesting way of life. If I only live in Hangzhou, then I may not get used to it for a long time. The life will gradually feel the aesthetic fatigue. But if it is a two-city life, I can feel the different humanities and living habits of the two cities every day. This is equivalent to dividing the time of the day into two parts. Feel the life of the place of residence, and the other part is to feel the life of the workplace. I think this is a cost-effective lifestyle."

Of course, Cheng Wei said that he also has a lot of troubles. For example, the daily commute time is too long, so that I have to leave for Hangzhou every day after work. If it is late, the bus will be gone, and he can only take a taxi back to Hangzhou. This will be a very expensive expense. And when he got home, he was very tired. He didn't have time to meet up with friends and didn't have time to do what he liked. “I often feel that time is not enough and I am very tired. This is also one of the biggest shortcomings.”

But Cheng Wei said that in the future, he still hopes to continue this life. After all, he is a person who likes freshness, and he hopes that his life will be full of diversity.