BEIJING- The annual exodus of migrant workers returning home for the Spring Festival is causing a major strain on urban services and disrupting many urban residents' lives.

每年春节的农民工返乡潮使得城市劳动力紧张,影响了许多城市人的生活。

"The Spring Festival is creating a severe shortage of sanitation workers in Beijing," said Guang Hong, the owner of an outsourcing  company that works with government agencies to clean residential streets in the capital.

“春节使得北京市清洁工严重紧缺,”一家为政府机构提供清扫马路服务的外包公司老板说道。

Migrant workers in cities often end up with undesirable and low-paid jobs, such as housekeeping and street cleaning.

农民工在城市往往只能干一些不尽人意的低收入工作,比如保姆或是道路清洁工。

Urban residents, who have long enjoyed the convenience and largely taken it for granted, are now beginning to see the value of migrant workers in a new light.

城市居民长时间享受着农民工带来的便利,已经习以为常。现在大批农民工返乡,使城市居民更多地看到了农民工存在的价值。

They are finding their favorite breakfast stands closed, and coal for home heating now unavailable. And they are facing fewer choices and rising prices for those services still available.

他们发现他们最喜欢的早饭摊关门了,家用取暖的炭买不到了。他们花更多钱,而且选择的余地变小了。

Particularly under strain are the country's couriers, which have to cope with the Spring Festival peak season with only a small fraction of their normal manpower.

而用工特别紧张的要数快递员了,他们在春节这个快递高峰期只能处理平时快递量的一小部分。

The effects are evident. Many vendors on , a popular online-shopping website, stop selling during the festival and put up notices telling netizens that goods cannot be delivered during the holidays.

许多淘宝的卖家在春节期间停止出售货物,并在网页上张贴告示,表示春节期间货物无法发送。

Zheng Yongcai, director of the Beijing branch of Yunda Express said the volume of express services is expected to double during the Spring Festival as 80 percent of the company's employees are returning home. Most of Yunda's staff members are migrant workers from all parts of the country.

韵达快递的领导郑永才(音)说,春节期间的快递量是平时的2倍。80%的韵达公司员工都回家过年了而他们绝大多数是农民工。

Zheng said employees staying at their posts will have to work harder and assume responsibilities usually taken by several people.

郑永才说那些留下来的员工必须更加拼命工作,一个人干几个人的活。

"We are under the dual pressure of extra volume and increasing customer demands for timely and safe delivery," Zheng said.

“我们一方面我们要承担额外的快递量,另一方面越来越多的顾客需要我们将货物及时安全地送到,我们为此承受了双倍的压力。”

Those who stay for the holiday will receive double or triple pay as compensation for their overtime, according to Zheng.

据郑永才表示,那些留下来工作的员工会得到是平时工资双倍甚至是三倍的加班工资。

The mass departure of migrant workers at the end of the year is a longstanding problem that has increasingly greater effects on urban residents' daily lives, said Lu Huilin, a sociologist at Peking University.

“农民工年末的大批返乡是一个长期存在的问题,这个问题对城市居民生活的影响越来越大。”北京大学的社会学家卢惠玲(音)这样说道。

Although they usually take up menial jobs such as milk or newspaper delivery, their work is an important part of urban life.

尽管他们从事的是卑微的工作,比如送奶员、送报员等,但他们的工作是城市生活重要的一部分。

"It is a sad fact that people only notice their existence and contribution by the absence of the services they provide," Lu said.

“人们在农民工大批返乡时才会注意到他们的存在以及他们的劳动对社会所作出的贡献。”

The problem exists because migrant workers cannot enjoy normal family life in their host cities. And job instability caused by their annual mass departure will hurt their own interests, according to Lu.

这个问题长期存在是由于农民工在他们老家不能享受正常的家庭生活。他们每年大量地返乡又导致了工作的不稳定,损害了他们自己的利益。

"The urbanization we talk about in China today is an inflated concept. Only when migrant workers can live in affordable apartments and send their children to school in their host cities, instead of leading a split life, can we talk about urbanization in the real sense," Lu said.

“今天我们所说的中国城市化是一个被夸大了的概念。只有当农民工在他们所居住的城市住得起房,能送孩子进学校,而不是过着两地分居的生活的时候,我们才能真正地去谈论城市化这个问题。”