The Migrant Workers Who Never Made It Home

Highway collapse in southern China kills at least 48, injures 30 in the May national holiday. Some were on their way for one of the few family reunions every year.

Part of the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway in Meizhou City of southern China’s Guangdong Province collapsed around 2:10 a.m. Wednesday, May 2. By 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 4, the death toll had risen to 48, Xinhua News Agency reported. The DNA of another three people has yet to be identified. Thirty others were injured, and none are in life-threatening condition.

Xinhua reported that Xi Jinping, the Chinese President, and Li Qiang, the Chinese Premier, gave instructions regarding the tragedy. Zhang Guoqing, a Vice Premier, went to the site of the collapse to oversee the rescue operations. Guangdong's top officials directed operations on the ground.

Sanlian Lifeweek on Monday, May 6 released a report documenting the moment of peril in the early morning, which was quickly taken offline.

Below is a translation of the Chinese-language story, produced without the knowledge of Sanlian LIfeweek or its three reporters Peng Li, Qin Si, and Xia Jieyi.

[Photo via Xinhua]

On May 2, a press conference in Meizhou city disclosed that by 2 PM, a landslide on the Meizhou Dabu Expressway had ensnared 23 vehicles, resulting in 48 fatalities. Additionally, further DNA comparisons are necessary to ascertain the identities of three victims. Another 30 individuals sustained injuries and were transported to Meizhou People's Hospital (Huangtang Hospital) and Dabu County People's Hospital, with all currently in stable conditions.

Constructed between 2010 and 2014 during a surge in infrastructure development, the Meizhou Dabu Expressway is a crucial corridor linking Meizhou with Longyan, and by extension, Guangdong with Fujian. Interviews with this publication revealed that most victims were from villages near Longyan City in Fujian Province. Historically a significant mining region at the century's start, Longyan experienced considerable environmental degradation due to extensive mining operations. As the local economy shifted and mining companies ceased operations, villagers sought new employment opportunities, primarily migrating to factories in Guangdong to work in the electronics and machinery sectors. The completion of the Meizhou Dabu Expressway soon made it an indispensable route for these workers traveling home.

In an interview, it was noted that many victims of the recent disaster were employees at an auto parts city in Guangzhou, working continuously with no weekends, only returning home during national holidays. For many villagers, who visit home merely two to three times a year, carpooling overnight during the Labor Day holiday was the most convenient and economical travel option. Their plan involved departing from the auto parts city on the evening of April 30, aiming to reach home by 3 AM on May 1 to avoid traffic and spend the following day with family.

The Collapse in the Dark

Perhaps Rao Zhen was the last driver to narrowly escape before the collapse of the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway. This journey was meant to be a much-anticipated family reunion. Originally from Qingxi Town, Dabu County, Meizhou, Rao Zhen, along with his mother, wife, two children, and in-laws, had long settled in Shenzhen, only returning to his hometown to visit his father during holidays. Rao Zhen recalls that on the afternoon of April 30, after his daughter returned from school, the family of seven enjoyed a leisurely dinner. Around 7:30 PM, Rao Zhen embarked from Longgang, Shenzhen, in a seven-seater business vehicle.

En route, they encountered a light rain and mist. Upon exiting the Meizhou Dabu toll station and heading towards Chayang, the night sky cleared, improving visibility.

Around 2:00 AM on May 1, the car approached a location 2 kilometers from the Chayang exit on the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway, heading from Dabu to Fujian, when Rao Zhen noticed a dark shadow about sixty to seventy centimeters wide between the slow lane and the emergency lane on the right. Initially mistaking it for a puddle or fresh asphalt, Rao instinctively steered left to avoid it but heard two muffled bangs as the front wheel struck something and the rear wheel seemed to "jump." Gripping the steering wheel tightly, he attempted to pull over to the emergency lane, but the brakes failed. The car continued to slide forward another 300 meters before stopping between the emergency and slow lanes, narrowly leaping over the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway that was fracturing beneath them.

Awakened by the jolt, everyone in the car was startled. "Did you fall asleep and hit something?" Rao Zhen's mother asked. "It's nothing, Mom," he reassured her, preparing to check the vehicle's condition. As he opened the car door, he saw in the rearview mirror that the headlights of another car vanished into the night, accompanied by a sharp metallic impact sound. This unusual occurrence puzzled Rao Zhen's mother, who suggested, "Let's get out and take a look, maybe someone else's car is broken too." As she spoke, she exited the car, followed by Rao Zhen's in-laws and wife. With no streetlights illuminating the highway, they activated their phone flashlights and walked along the emergency lane toward the rear of the car. Upon examining his vehicle, Rao Zhen discovered a cracked wheel hub and a ruined tire, realizing that the car wouldn't be moving any time soon.

At that moment, a second vehicle coming from behind also vanished suddenly. "There's a big pit!" Rao Zhen's mother, walking ahead, was the first to notice. "Could the car have fallen in? Come and help!" Realizing the gravity of the situation, Rao Zhen asked his wife to call the police while he took his phone flashlight and began running toward the rear of the car, "We kept running forward, our hands constantly waving." As they ran, they observed more cars continuously falling into the pit, with steam billowing out. When

they reached a spot about 50 meters from the pit, Rao, in a state of urgency, climbed onto the guardrail separating the two-way road and desperately waved his flashlight, shouting, "Stop! Stop!" Standing 1.73 meters tall, he hoped his elevated position would make him more visible, but the oncoming cars struggled to halt in time. "You could see them slowing down, as if they had stepped on the brakes and then released them, probably trying to decipher what lay ahead, and by the time they realized, it was too late to brake again."

In Rao Zhen's recollection, when approximately the ninth car fell, a towering flame erupted from the pit, and a car exploded. "Step back a bit!" he cautioned his family. He observed that with each impact and explosion, the road continued to collapse, and the deep pit widened. At that moment, his father-in-law, Huang Jiandu, climbed over the guardrail, crossed the adjacent highway lane against traffic, and knelt in the center of the road, causing the oncoming vehicles to finally slam on their brakes. Huang Jiandu shouted to the drivers, "There's a landslide ahead!"

Rescue Amidst the Inferno

[Photo via Xinhua]

Seeing the oncoming vehicles gradually come to a halt, Rao Zhen decided to move back to assist in rescuing people. By then, the initial crack in the road surface, approximately sixty to seventy centimeters wide, had evolved into a massive fissure. Subsequent reports from local authorities indicated that the collapsed road section spanned 17.9 meters, with the total collapse area, including the roadbed and the underlying mountain, measuring about 184.3 square meters.

Rao Zhen encountered a man in his thirties climbing out of the pit, covered in blood and staggering as he walked. "Are you okay?" Rao Zhen asked. The man, barely coherent, responded, "How did I get up here?" Then, another man emerged from the pit, clutching a three-year-old child tightly. "Please call the police to save my mom. I could have held onto her, but a car fell, and there was a fire next to it," the man pleaded. Rao Zhen comforted him, assuring that the police had already been called. Noticing that the child was neither crying nor agitated, with blood at the corners of his mouth and on his head, Rao Zhen, who had studied health in school, suspected the child might have internal injuries. He ran back to the car to retrieve his daughter's school uniform jacket, spread it on the ground, and let the child lie down to rest. The man borrowed Rao Zhen's phone to make a call, gasping and choking back tears as he said in Hakka, "Ah Ba, Ah Ma Mo Lei (Dad, Mom is gone)."

Cai Xuanda was among the survivors. At 23 years old and hailing from Zhangzhou, Fujian, he had departed Guangzhou at 6 PM on April 30 and arrived at the accident site just after 2 AM on May 1, where he was stopped by Huang Jiandu. Cai Xuanda and another car owner, Liu Yongjin, prepared to descend into the pit to rescue people.

Liu Yongjin, a native of Yongding, Longyan, recalled that around 2:30 AM, when he was approaching the site, cars were already driving against traffic. As he proceeded, he observed more than a dozen vehicles piled at the bottom of the pit with flames rising and people climbing out, shouting, "Is there anyone there! Help us!" Liu Yongjin shouted down twice, "The car is on fire and is about to explode, you must run quickly!"

Six injured individuals had reached a small mound near the drainage ditch at the bottom of the pit, approximately a dozen meters away from the burning vehicles. After their fall, each had climbed to this temporary "safe area" from their respective vehicles. Liu Yongjin initially climbed over the guardrail and descended along the drainage ditch on the protective slope, but the ditch proved too slippery, forcing him to return. He and Cai Xuanda then navigated down the steep, slippery slope, maintaining their balance by grasping the grass. "The slope was so steep that we had to take a 'zigzag' path," Liu Yongjin explained, adding that reaching the nearest injured person took them about five to six minutes.

Together, they first rescued a little girl about three or four years old. Liu Yongjin carried her on his shoulder, and she cried, even spitting up a mouthful of blood onto his shoulder. Next, they assisted a teenage boy who was in severe pain in his legs and upper body; they could only support him under his armpits. With no leverage available, Liu Yongjin and Cai Xuanda took turns climbing up, "passing him from one to another." "The boy kept crying, saying that his mother was still under the car and asked us to save her," Cai Xuanda recalled. Following them was a man in his thirties who claimed all his ribs were broken; Liu Yongjin could only push him up from behind. As soon as the man reached the road surface, he lay down on the ground.

From the moment they began their rescue efforts, Cai Xuanda could feel the fire intensifying, with heat waves surging toward them. The most terrifying part was when the cars started to explode. Cai Xuanda remembered, "There was the sound of tires exploding, 'bang,' very loud, and some explosions lasted a long time, 'whoo——' like that."

[Photo via Caixin]

Afterward, Liu Yongjin went down to save the remaining three people. A teenage boy, "pale-faced and looking very weak, couldn't even crawl the last forty centimeters," along with a fifty-year-old woman and a man in his thirties, whose right foot was bleeding. While rescuing people, Liu Yongjin noticed that about four or five meters away from them, more than a dozen individuals had climbed out of the cars and were standing in a spot, "and they would shout every time there was an explosion sound." However, Liu Yongjin couldn't reach them, as a tree taller than Liu Yongjin, who stood 1.8 meters tall, separated them.

By the time Liu Yongjin had finished rescuing the sixth person and returned to the road surface, it was around 3:20 AM. A dozen fire trucks had arrived at the scene, and most of the other passing cars had retreated against traffic. There were not many people still outside, and next to Liu Yongjin, there were two men who kept nervously pacing around. They told Liu Yongjin that a car they were traveling with had fallen, and although they could initially make phone calls, they couldn't get through now. "I comforted them, saying that it was probably because they didn't bring their phones, but at that time, we could still hear the sound of explosions, and the fire was getting bigger, so the chances of survival were probably not high."

[Photo via Xinhua]

Returnees to Their Hometowns

The Meizhou-Dabu Expressway, also known as the "Meizhou-Dabu" highway, is the first highway constructed in Dabu County. It begins in Mei County, passes through Dabu County, and terminates at the junction with Longyan, Fujian. Construction commenced in 2010 and concluded in 2014, spanning a total length of 61.2 kilometers with an investment of nearly 5.6 billion yuan. The highway traverses the Nanling Lianhua Mountain Range, predominantly characterized by mountainous and hilly terrain, replete with gullies, epitomizing a typical denudation hilly landform. The proportion of bridges and tunnels along the entire route reaches 51%, rendering the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway one of the most challenging mountain highway construction projects in Guangdong Province at that time, with recurrent high-risk incidents such as collapses, landslides, and water seepage during construction.

Following the completion of the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway, the travel time from Dabu to Meizhou was reduced from 1.5 hours to 50 minutes. The highway also connects with the route from Putian, Fujian, to Yongding, establishing a vital link between Guangdong and Fujian provinces. The drive from Meizhou to Xiamen now takes about 3 hours, and to Zhangzhou, approximately 2.5 hours. For individuals from Longyan, Fujian, traveling southwest to Guangxi and Guangdong has become more expedient, saving nearly an hour compared to the original Chang-Shen Expressway. Consequently, the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway has emerged as a significant transportation artery for people from Longyan venturing out to work. A villager from Longyan informed this magazine that they could also take the national highway into Guangdong, "but the national highway meanders around the mountains, with many ups and downs, and it's a single-lane road, which is narrower, and the distance is tens of kilometers longer than the Meizhou-Longyan Expressway. Most people would opt to take the highway."

In this magazine's interviews, most victims originated from villages under the jurisdiction of Longyan City, Fujian Province, and were returning home from cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen when the tragedy struck. Predominantly mountainous, Longyan was historically the foremost mining area in Fujian, rich in coal and iron ore. Extensive mining over the years, however, ravaged the region's vegetation, turning Longyan into one of the areas most severely impacted by soil erosion in the south, characterized by "barren mountains and thin fields." It was only in recent years, bolstered by governmental investments, that the ecology began to recover. As the local economy transformed, numerous mining operations ceased, compelling villagers to seek new livelihoods. Over the past decade, employment in electronics and machinery factories in Guangdong has become the prevailing trend.

[Map by Wen Wei Po]

Chen Han, 41, hails from Yanjiang Village in the Yongding District of Longyan City. Tragically, a father and son from his neighborhood were among those killed in this accident. Chen revealed that the accident site was merely ten kilometers from the village. The deceased father, Yu Hai, 42, and his 14-year-old son were visiting elderly relatives. Yu Hai was employed at a bottled water factory in Heyuan City, Guangdong. He had twin daughters preparing for the college entrance exam, with his wife staying behind to care for them, so only his son accompanied him on this visit. Yu Hai, who had worked away from home for over two decades, was described by Chen as exceptionally devoted: "Whenever there was a holiday, he would return. Unlike others who might play mahjong, he immediately assisted with farm work." During the Lunar New Year, Yu Hai discussed with Chen the hefty art class fees for his daughters, amounting to 100,000 yuan each—a significant financial strain. Following the catastrophe, Yu Hai's wife struggled to cope, and a fellow villager, Yu Meiling, mentioned, "She wanted to see his entire body, but it was obliterated, with only a few teeth found."

Two senior citizens from Yanjiang Village also perished in the landslide. One was in his fifties, and the other about sixty. They worked together in a factory in Dongguan. "This pattern of working away is commonplace here," explained Chen. The village, home to over 1,200 people, is nestled among mountains with scant arable land—merely five or six fen per person, used for cultivating watermelons and corn. "One might earn just two or three thousand yuan annually from farming, so venturing out is necessary," Chen added.

Wang Wenlin, from Jinfeng Village in the Yongding District of Longyan, met a tragic fate as well. A friend recounted that after finishing junior high, Wang had been employed in a car repair shop at a local car factory. The business shut down three years ago due to financial difficulties, prompting him to move to Guangzhou. "Good jobs are scarce in the village; it's mostly farming, transport, or construction," he stated. Wang's family was among the economically disadvantaged in the village. His mother had lost a leg in a car accident over a decade ago and could no longer work. His father, retired from a coal mine, received a modest pension, but with three children to support, the family primarily depended on Wang's income. "Life has always been a struggle for them. The kids grew up responsible, helping with household chores, caring for their grandmother, and excelling academically," his friend noted.

In the car with Wang were his wife, his wife's nephew, and a villager hitchhiking back from Guangzhou, where he intended to learn hairdressing. Huang Rui, from Sanfeng Village in Yongding District, recounted that five of his friends, including Wang and his wife, died in the accident. The victims' ages ranged from 24 to the sixties. They were all acquainted as they worked in the same auto parts city in Guangzhou, living not far from each other. Huang noted, "Hitchhiking was the most practical and economical option for us." He explained that a high-speed train journey from Guangzhou to Longyan took over four hours, including the subway ride to the station, was inconvenient, often requiring transfers, and cost more than 300 yuan per person. In contrast, the highway toll was just over 200 yuan, and with shared fuel expenses, the cost was significantly lower.

Some workers interviewed by this magazine worked in an auto parts mall and lacked a standard two-day weekend, only returning home during national holidays. "This May Day, we had only a three-day break," Huang stated. For villagers busy with daily life and able to visit home only two or three times a year, arriving home early was crucial. "We left on the evening of April 30, aiming to reach home by 3 AM on May 1, to avoid traffic, rest upon arrival, and spend quality time with family the next day," Huang added.

The Meizhou-Dabu Expressway, A Constant Hazard

Peng Lin, a seasoned geotechnical engineer, explained to this magazine that although the terrain along the Meizhou Expressway is generally rugged, the specific site of the accident was not particularly complex or steep. Satellite imagery shows the original highway elevation ranged from 126m to 120m, with a natural slope ratio of about 1:4 (H:V), a relatively gentle 25-degree incline.

"The standard procedure for constructing a highway on such terrain involves excavating the inner part and backfilling the outer part to create a flat surface," Peng noted. Photos of the accident site indicate that the collapse initiated at the midpoint of the road, where the excavation meets the backfill—an area known as the 'interface.' A professor specializing in roadbed engineering and geotechnical engineering, also a member of the China Highway Construction Industry Association, explained that the region's prevalent granite residual soil tends to crack during droughts, worsening over time. When heavy rainfall occurs, the soil quickly softens and expands, potentially destabilizing the structure.

A Meizhou Dabu County resident recalled a recent severe water shortage, noting, "A few years back, there wasn't even enough water to heat in high-rise buildings." The area suffered a historic drought between 2021 and 2022, followed by multiple heavy rainfall events from the summer of 2023 through spring 2024. This April's rainfall was extraordinary, with Meizhou Dabu County recording 628.2 millimeters—2.75 times the average of previous years and the highest for April since records began. Chen Han, who lives ten kilometers from the incident site, remarked, "It rained almost daily since the start of April, sometimes heavily, sometimes lightly, but it never fully stopped, with only brief respites." The village endured several road blockages due to mudslides, thankfully without casualties. In nearby Anqian Village, Tian Cheng, who runs a duck farm, reported the collapse of a duck shed due to the excessive rainfall, resulting in the loss of thousands of ducks.

The design flood protection level for the Meilong Expressway mandates that, aside from special large bridges, all bridges, culverts, and roadbeds withstand a 100-year flood event. "The drought in previous years likely caused cracks at the excavation-backfill interface, and this year's intense rainfall exacerbated the situation, leading to a catastrophic failure," the professor explained.

Peng Lin has contributed to numerous highway projects across China and studied various international cases of roadbed collapses and landslides. He considers the depth of damage in this incident on the Meizhou Expressway to be exceptionally rare, suggesting that overlooked factors during initial surveys, such as underlying layers or structural faults, inadequate drainage design for extreme weather, or lack of anti-slip measures during construction, might have played roles. Moreover, the quality of roadbed backfill and ongoing maintenance are crucial factors needing assessment.

The Meizhou-Dabu Expressway was constructed during China's golden era of highway development, from 2010 to 2014. In 2010, road construction investment in China surpassed the trillion yuan mark for the first time, and by 2012, the country's highway mileage reached 96,000 kilometers, eclipsing the United States to become the world leader. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, a total of 7.1 trillion yuan was invested in road construction—1.74 times that of the previous "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period. By the end of 2015, the highway network spanned 124,000 kilometers, serving 97.6% of the urban population in cities with over 200,000 residents.

Following this intensive construction phase, the quality of construction and subsequent maintenance of highways remains a critical issue. Dabu County's fragmented terrain, characterized by extensively weathered intrusive and metamorphic rocks and situated along the geologically active Zhenghe-Dabu fault zone, frequently triggers collapses, landslides, and mudslides. Chen Han was unsurprised by the landslide news, having frequently traveled this route. "The roadbed has always been problematic on this stretch, causing a bumpy ride, particularly in the four or five kilometers surrounding the accident site," he recalled. Two years prior, the accident area underwent local slope reinforcement. Last April, due to ongoing heavy rain, a dangerous situation emerged on the slope at K55+690 in the Dabu direction on the S12 Meilong Expressway, significantly impacting driving safety and prompting a three-day traffic control on the section from Xiayang to Dama.

The university professor emphasized that many regions in China possess soils unsuitable for highway construction, such as the expansive red clay in Yunnan and Guizhou or the permafrost in Tibet, Heilongjiang, and Jilin, which swell upon water contact. With increasing extreme weather events anticipated, enhancing reinforcement and regular monitoring will be essential. "Proactive reinforcement of roadbed slopes, such as installing steel mesh, anchor rods, or applying high-pressure jet concrete shells, is advisable. Additionally, increasing patrol frequency and installing inclinometers to monitor roadbed displacement in real-time is crucial," he advised.

Implementing such maintenance and inspection measures involves significant costs, yet the financial health of China's highway system remains precarious. According to the "2022 National Toll Road Statistics Bulletin," the total debt of the national toll roads approached 8 trillion yuan. The annual report from Guangdong Provincial Expressway Development Co., Ltd. revealed that the company's total debt reached 8.905 billion yuan in 2022.

Despite the accident occurring several days ago, and his family narrowly escaping harm, Rao Zhen remains engulfed in sorrow and regret, haunted by sleepless nights. The haunting memory of cars vanishing into the abyss continually replays in his mind. Though his family's efforts helped save many lives, he persistently questions, "Had we reached the other side of the pit sooner, could we have prevented more cars from falling?"

(Note: Aside from Rao Zhen, Huang Jiandu, Cai Xuanda, and Liu Wenjin, the names mentioned are pseudonyms.)