You know when you feel a little proud of yourself for having managed more than the recommended 10,000 steps a day for, like, a week? Well, someone’s got you beat. He’s taken over 30,000 steps a day for no one knows how long. And now it’s all over.
At 08:07 yesterday, 29 January, Wang Jianguo, one of 21 delivery personnel at Nanjing South Railway Station, received his first order of the day. At the age of 60, he was beginning his last shift.
Outside, the temperature on the platform was minus 1 degrees Celsius. After a night of light rain and snow, the wet and wind went straight to his bones. But Wang nevertheless began running back and forth as he always has, his breaths lingering in the cold air.
His first delivery of meals was for the D3056 high-speed train service from Shanghai Hongqiao to Nanchong North. The train would stop at Nanjing South at 09:29 and Wang needed to have the meals on the platform, ready and waiting, on time.
But it can be a long way. Inside the distribution centre where Wang was based, the 60 square-metre room is stacked neatly with meals awaiting hungry passengers.
From there, to any of Nanjing South’s 28 platforms, it is anywhere between 300 and 1,000 metres.
At 11:40, Wang received instructions to take 32 meals to the G122 train, his ninth work order of the day. An important train, the G122 runs between Shanghai Hongqiao and Beijing South.
Wang divided the meals into two distribution boxes, carefully hoisted them on to his shoulders, stooped low and ran to the dining car, coach number 5, on platform 9. When the G122 arrived, he handed the meals over to the the train’s catering steward.
““With small steps and a low center of gravity, you can keep your body stable, effectively reducing the shaking of the boxes and preventing the meals from spilling”, he told the Yangtze Evening News.
At 19:05, Wang sent out his last order on the verge of retirement. Yesterday, he made 32 round trips between the platforms and his distribution centre, accumulating 32,281 steps in the process. Wang had delivered his last supper.
