A ticketer in a train station in Shanghai has gone viral recently on social media for her fast hands and fluent English, serving domestic and global travelers to ensure a pleasant trip during the Spring Festival travel rush, and demonstrating professionalism.
You Yuan, the ticker at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, has recently gained nationwide popularity on the internet, with reports and short videos about her amazing techniques flooding social media platforms.
With all the praise from passengers she assisted, You's popularity has proven to be rooted in professionalism, not showmanship.
"I would say she is the best, because her service is very professional and very perfect," said Matuku Munashe Pious, a traveler from Zimbabwe.
But You remains remarkably calm facing the unexpected fame.
"This is just part of my daily work, and I didn't expect to receive so much recognition and appreciation from social media. I've been working for around 10 years, and every day at work counts as a day of practice. In addition, we have also experienced large passenger flows in the past (when you had to move quickly)," said You.
Years back, during the Spring Festival travel rush, You was able to issue up to 1,500 tickets a day. This is no longer a necessary skill for ticketers after self-servicing stations, digital tickets, and online ticket sales became universal, but new technologies also added complexity to their daily work, shared You.
"In the past, our counters were solely for ticket sales and refunds, but now you can see that we offer a one-stop service for a variety of requests. As long as passengers can handle on their phones by themselves, they will not come to us. They would only come to us when coming up with difficulties," said You.
According to estimations, over 9 billion domestic trips are expected during this year's Spring Festival holidays, a time for all Chinese people to reunite with families. And You, along with all the other staff dedicated to their position during the holidays, have been safeguarding smooth and safe travels for all.
Shanghai train ticketer gets viral for fast hands, fluent English
Foreign diplomats and scholars are looking closely at this year's "two sessions", saying China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) will not only chart the nation's economic and technological priorities but also reshape global value chains.
The fourth session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the nation's top political advisory body, opened on Wednesday, followed by the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) on Thursday. Together known as the "two sessions," these meetings offer a comprehensive view into China's development priorities.
Global observers emphasized that the 15th Five-Year Plan, a blueprint guiding the nation's economic, social, and technological priorities over the next five years, marks a decisive shift toward high‑quality growth anchored in advanced technologies, with ripple effects across the world.
"The two sessions will discuss China's five-year plan, which is heavily oriented toward China's major technological development. I believe this is important because it represents the new blueprint for China's economy, which is now oriented toward the renowned high-quality development, and this will undoubtedly impact the entire world. I think it is worth studying. This is very important for Latin America. It will help us integrate more intelligently into global value chains and into all aspects of the major development that China is promoting in iconic industrial sectors, such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and space development, where Latin America also has much to contribute beyond just commercial growth," said Gustavo Sabino Vaca Narvaja, former Argentine Ambassador to China.
"The two sessions are a major political milestone in China, and this year's gathering carries even greater significance as this year marks the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan. This plan represents not only a blueprint for China, but also a guide for other countries. Instruments like the five-year plan effectively provide greater certainty and predictability for the rest of the world," said Chilean scholar of international relations Ignacio Araya Heredia.
"This is a particularly important date, especially due to the fact that the next Five-Year Plan shall be positioned and we're going to see what its main elements shall be. Serbia, which has a very high degree of steel friendship with the People's Republic of China, can expect further assistance in identifying the most prominent areas of Serbian economy and being helped by its great partner, such as it has been done in the previous period, from one part with establishing the main infrastructure projects, but also reshaping the industrial sector of Serbia, not just Serbia, but the region as a whole," said Veljko Mijuskovic, assistant professor of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Belgrade.
Beyond the policy framework, experts also pointed to China's achievements in green energy and technological innovation as models worth emulating.
Tomasz Bielinski, adjunct professor at the University of Gdansk's Faculty of Economics, said the robotics displays at the 2026 China Media Group (CMG) Spring Festival Gala reflected China's broader push in technological innovation.
"I was really impressed about the robotics. I'm very impressed with Chinese development in the technological field, we can still make great deals with Chinese businessmen and we can cooperate together to use this technology for both the good of China and the European Union. I'm aware of the innovation especially in autonomous drive on the on the Chinese side," he said.
"We hope for more of China's economic cooperation, especially in trade and also in investment. Also, and the other focus, if I talk about the focus of the development, don't forget about the green energy. We know that China is great in the electric vehicle field. So because China's electric vehicles in Indonesia nowadays, since couple of years ago, are very, very popular," said Al Busyra Basnur, president of the Indonesia-China Friendship Association.
Observers see China's new five-year plan driving high-quality development, global tech shifts
