‘Yellow Bulls’ Make China See Red

Chinese railway authorities have launched an all-out attack on “yellow bulls” in and around its 5,700 train stations nationwide. Although the phrase evokes some new strain of hoof-and-mouth disease, it is in fact a century-old Chinese term for scalpers.

“Even our cooks have been called to the front lines to fight yellow bulls,” said Jiang Zhanlin, director of the Railway Ministry’s police department. “We’re prepared to fight as long as it takes.”

The Railway Ministry has announced an anti-yellow bull “Blue Shield Action” campaign for Chinese New Year, the busiest holiday on the calendar, which begins Sunday. The ministry boasted that it had caught 2,110 of these “sharks” as of Tuesday in what has been billed as a 69-day campaign.

Despite the best efforts of pot-stirrers, police and propagandists, however, yellow bulls are thriving.

“Business isn’t great, but only because I can’t get enough tickets to sell,” said a female yellow bull, sporting a fading brown coat and a ruddy face, as she stood in front of Beijing Station offering a $56 ticket to Hefei for $93.

“I could sell so many more if they were only available,” she added, as two police looked on impassively from 5 feet away.

The central problem is a yawning gap between supply and demand. China’s holiday season sees two or three desperate passengers for every train seat. Whenever 1.3 billion people decide to do anything in lock step, systems shudder.

Experts estimate that people in China will take 2 billion long- and short-distance trips during the New Year’s holiday period, 100 million more than last year. And for most migrant workers, trains are the only way home.

That leaves ample room for yellow bulls to make a fortune. Even rail police chief Jiang acknowledged that the problem is not easy to wipe out.

A study by the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences released this month estimated there were 10,000 yellow bulls around Beijing’s two main railroad stations, ranging in age from 14 to 77.

During Chinese New Year, the study found, top earning bulls pulled down as much as $360 a day, a windfall in a country where the average annual income is around $1,000.

Many turned out to be pregnant women or those carrying babies, since under Chinese law these groups are exempt from arrest or fines.

The alternative to buying from yellow bulls, a term reportedly coined in Shanghai at the end of the 19th century to describe the herd-like behavior of scalpers, can be several days of waiting in line.

For many Chinese, securing a ticket is only the first hurdle. The few with enough money and luck to snag sleeper berths can travel in relative comfort. The vast majority of migrant workers, however, must suffer agonizing journeys aboard bare-bones, overcrowded passenger cars.

Many are not only unable to find seats for trips lasting up to 36 hours, they’re often barely able to move. Aisles are often so packed that it becomes virtually impossible to get to the toilet. And even if they get there, using it is often out of the question given that several people are standing inside. In desperation, some migrant workers have taken to wearing adult diapers.

“I have a different solution,” said Lou Zhu, a researcher at a think tank tied to the Transport Ministry, who once emerged from a 38-hour trip unable to walk. “I just don’t drink anything the whole time.”

This year is worse than usual. The lunar festival falls early, so students -- who ordinarily travel home before the holiday for winter break -- are further swelling the traveling hordes. And a huge snowstorm a few days ago stranded 160,000 passengers, adding to the backlog.

Some critics have proposed a more flexible holiday system, so everyone doesn’t take off at the same time, a move companies have resisted. To tame yellow bulls, Luo suggests that passengers be required to register their names when buying tickets, as on airplanes, making it difficult to resell them.

Some, though, see hypocrisy behind the crackdown on yellow bulls amid reports that many get their tickets from railway employees who share in the illegal profits. “The railway is the biggest ‘yellow bull,’ ” said an anonymous posting on Sina.com, one of China’s largest portals.

Taking a pricing lesson from free-market capitalist Adam Smith, or intent on getting a bigger cut of the action, the railway raised peak-season ticket prices 20% this year. This drew howls of protest given that migrant workers are the biggest group of users. Some save up all year for a single trip home.

“My ticket home cost 10% of my $125 monthly income,” said Li Dianhui, 52, a porter with dirt-caked fingernails sitting outside Beijing Station in well-worn polyester pants and ankle-high black boots. “It’s really expensive for people like us, but I don’t really have a choice. I haven’t seen my family in a month and they’re waiting for me.”

In a bow to public opinion, the rail monopoly decided not to raise prices on many of the 300 extra trains added for the peak season.

Once people arrive at their destination for the weeklong holiday, some face other problems. Although for most people the holiday is a joyous time to be shared with family and friends, tradition dictates that Chinese must settle their financial and personal debts before the new year.

This can engender stress among those unable to square their accounts, said Wang Huaiqi, a therapist at the Shanghai Lizi Center, as China becomes increasingly money conscious. The center handles a significant increase in patients this time of year.

Relationship problems also tend to spike.

“Given how important Chinese New Year is for Chinese, it’s really important who you spend time with,” Wang said. “If you have a triangle situation, someone has to make a choice. It makes it harder to hide marriage problems and affairs.”

Huaiyuan Court in Anhui Province reported handling 87% of all divorce cases for the year around the annual festival. Some returning migrant workers also question whether the new child in the family is theirs.

Cui Yugui, a doctor at a paternity center in Jiangsu People’s Hospital, told the Jiangnan Times that China’s peak time for returning home is also its peak time for paternity tests, despite the fact that 90% of the results show the child is not the result of infidelity.

Traditionalists also fret that Chinese New Year may be losing some of its appeal. Many of the holiday’s core traditions, including fireworks, paying homage to the money and kitchen gods, visiting relatives and dancing with dragon lanterns, evolved over centuries of rural life.

Some younger, urban Chinese complain that the holiday is boring, while others find the social obligations associated with paying visits to bosses and distant relatives a chore.

That’s all of little concern to a yellow bull in a brown jacket, a baby asleep in her arm, standing in the entrance of the subway station leading to Beijing Station.

“Tickets available to Nanjing,” she tells anyone interested. “And $35 for an $18 ticket this time of year is not expensive.”

Nor is she particularly concerned for the latest police crackdown. “Even the police need to buy from us when it comes time to go back home,” she adds.

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Yin Lijin in The Times’ Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.