Beijing-Hebei expressway commuters face long waits

Cross-city commuters between Beijing and neighboring cities in Hebei province, the epicenter of the nation's new cluster of COVID-19 cases, found it would take around half a day to go to work on early Friday morning since the authority started to require several documents and nucleic acid test results to enter the capital via the expressway.

Ma Tao, a resident in Langfang, a city in Hebei near Beijing, said he arrived at the checkpoint at the expressway to Beijing at 8 am and waited for three hours because of the extremely long queue.

The officials at the checkpoint examine each car and every individual in the car one by one, he said.

"I went through the checkpoint at around 11 am," Ma said. "I might arrive at my company at 1 pm since I will have to drive for around two hours after I get on the expressway."

In order to reduce COVID-19 infection risks, Hebei province announced on Thursday afternoon that residents in Hebei should not to go to Beijing if not absolutely necessary.

People who need to travel to Beijing should bring a negative nucleic acid test result within 72 hours before arriving to enter the capital.

Those people who live in Hebei province and work in Beijing should bring three documents to enter the capital, namely the residential identification from their communities, certificate of employment from their workplace in Beijing and a negative nucleic acid test result within 14 days. In particular, they should bring a negative nucleic acid test result within 72 hours during the first entry.

According to a previous Chinese report, there are around 300,000 people living in Yanjiao, a city in Hebei, commuting to Beijing for work every day.

Many commuters have withdrawn from the expressway due to the long queue extending for miles, applying with their companies to work from home instead.

Zhang Wei, a cross-city commuter who lives in Langfang, said she will ask her company if she can work from home since it's "impossible" to get to the company on time.

"It's such a waste of time to wait for hours in the car on the expressway," she said. "I agree with preventing and controlling the spread of the virus with strict measures, but the efficiency at the checkpoint should be raised. Otherwise, it's just similar to a ban on going to Beijing."