Liu Huijun copies a driving account before starting her shift in a duty room at a station along the Line One of Nanning Rail Transit in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Jan. 16, 2020. What does the driving cab look like? How do metro drivers steer a train? When passengers take a metro train, many may find metro driving mysterious, as they cannot see the drivers in the cab, which is separate from the main body of the train. For Liu Huijun, however, metro driving, which may appear as routine as any other, requires not only proficient driving skills and excellent psychological qualities, but also a spirit of dedication and hard work. Liu, a metro driver born in 1996, is at work along Line One in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. She became one of the first batch of female drivers for metro trains on Line One in July 2017. Line One is Nanning's first urban rail transit line. It's east section opened on June 28, 2016, while the full operation began six months later. The metro line, which stretches 32.1 km from Nanning East Railway Station to Shibu, consists of 25 underground stations. When it comes to the morning shift, Liu usually gets up at about 4 a.m., when many people are still sound asleep. After following a ritualistic process including copying driving accounts, taking a breathalyzer test and inspecting subway train and rails, Liu embarks on a journey alone in the driving cab. It takes about two and half hours to finish a round trip, during which Liu must concentrate her mind on the work. Only a break after a one-way trip can Liu ease her nerves and become as lively and talkative as her peers. Wearing plum red uniforms with bowknots, Liu and eight others, all born in the 1990s, are a special and welcome sight among the total of 300-plus drivers of Nanning Rail Transit. Talking about gender difference, Liu said that women are more detail-oriented, which give them an advantage in train driver positions dominated by men. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)
