Railway employees keep tracks free, goods flowing

Divided into four groups, the station's 44 dispatchers have a number of other responsibilities in addition to the assembly and disassembly of trains, and as carriages are shunted around the site, the dispatchers have to hang off them to make sure everything goes according to plan.

"There are no buildings around where we work, so there's nothing to stop bitterly cold winds from sweeping in during the winter," said Ji Hai, head of the dispatchers. "We wear really thick clothing, but the wind can easily get through even heavy cotton."

The weight of the clothing doesn't help with climbing onto carriages or walking through the snow.

"Every work day, we have to walk around 20 km on patrol," Ji said. "Every dispatcher keeps at least two pairs of shoes ready in the winter because they get soaked through after working outside for a few hours, but after years of experience, the dispatchers all try their best to walk fast and work efficiently."

Another challenge is clearing the snow. The station's many switches and devices only function properly when they aren't covered in snow, so all the station's employees have developed the habit of clearing it away.