At around 5 a.m. on December 31, 2009, 15-year-old Anhui girl Yu Xiaowei arrived at Wenzhou Railway Station on train K101. More than a year earlier, she had worked at a garment factory in neighboring Wenling City. That summer, Yu Xiaowei had gone to work at a garment factory in Beijing. However, she had only stayed in Beijing for a few months. Because she could not stand the cold of the northern winter, she decided to return to Wenling again. She first needed to take a train from Beijing to Wenzhou, and then take a long-distance bus from Wenzhou to Wenling.

The road in front of the railway station was where taxi drivers solicited passengers. After haggling with a driver over the fare, Yu Xiaowei got into his taxi. Her destination was Wenzhou’s Xincheng Bus Station. After arriving there, she planned to take the earliest bus to Wenling to reunite with her father, who worked there.

The straight-line distance from Wenzhou Railway Station to Xincheng Bus Station was less than 5 kilometers. Under normal circumstances, the drive would not take more than 15 minutes. However, it was not until 40 minutes later that the driver delivered Yu Xiaowei to Xincheng … Read More