Yang Benli [File Photo: The Beijing Times]

Buses are still the best part in the memories of 71 year old Dong Xiuyun and her two children as they all worked on Beijing's local bus network over the course of two generations. Both 47 year old Yang Benli and 49 year old Yang Bensheng followed their mother to work as bus conductors on Beijing buses, having witnessed many changes as the city developed around them.

As one of China's first generation of bus conductors in the 1960s, Dong Xiuyun always treasured an old photo album containing pictures of her two children working in the 1980s. She excitedly flicked through the old images with a reporter from the Beijing Times.

Motto of Dong's Family in the 1960s: To Contribute Their Bits to Building New China

Dong Xiuyun was born in rural Tongxian county in eastern Beijing. In the early days following the founding of New China there was no bus from there to downtown Beijing. At that time, it took Dong a three hour donkey ride to get into the city.

In 1962, Dong Xiuyun was recruited to work at Beijing Bus Company, located near Xizhimen in the northern urban area of Beijing, which operated dozens of old-style buses that looked like loafs of bread.

After one year's work in cleaning and refueling, extrovert Dong became a conductor on the No.16 bus, on which she loved meeting all different passengers every day.

By the end of 1966, there were only 65 bus routes around Beijing and over 400 buses travelling in the city.

"In those days there were not many passengers, and most people who took her bus daily wore Mao-style suits with wooden smiles. Although Beijing in 1960s was not as busy as now, people were however full of energy and believed that everything they were doing was contributing to making new China more beautiful." Dong said.

Motto of Dong's Family in the 1970s: To Serve the People

For Dong's two daughters and son, what they heard repeatedly from their mother during childhood was "Serve the People."

At that time, a family of five, plus Dong's mother-in-law and two other relatives, all eight people lived together in Dong's 40-square-meter one-storey old house in Chongwen District.

When Yang Benli was five years old, she began to follow her mother on the number 16 bus and was soon able to recite most stops along the route.

Yang Benli still remembers that her mother kept smiling all the time and standing stably in the bus no matter how fast it travelled.

"At that time I felt my mother was magnificent as she checked for tickets and announced the stops. I often acted as a bus conductor when playing with other kids," Yang Benli recalled.

In the 1970s, more and more people travelled to work by bus. According to the practice of the time, when arriving at a bus stop, a bus conductor had to get off the bus first, helping passengers getting off and on the vehicle safely, make sure they were the last to get back onto the bus.

Meanwhile, Dong's children were growing up.

Motto of Dong's Family in the 1980s: To Carry on Mom's Work

When Yang Benli graduated from high school, Dong Xiuyun wanted her to carry on her job after she gets retired. However, Yang Benli wished to pursue her dream of becoming a singer instead.

"Mother told me that bus conductors as well as singers could win equal respect from the people. Of course I also liked the idea of becoming a conductor after my childhood experience on the number 16 bus, so in the end I agreed with my mom," Yang confessed.

To Dong's surprise, her son Yang Bensheng also expressed his desire to become a bus conductor.

With Dong's teaching "Carry on well with Mom's work!" in 1980s, both Yang Benli and Yang Bensheng followed their mother and began to work as bus conductors at Beijing Bus Company. It was also at the time that Dong's family moved into a new two-bedroom apartment.

On her first day working on the No. 10 bus, Yang Benli was so nervous that she was unable to smile and reported wrong bus stops. She returned home in tears. After that, Yang and her brother learned how to address passengers properly on buses by listening to a recorder, and gradually mastered the secrets and learned the details of the route.

As Beijing's bus network developed into 150 bus routes with nearly 3,370 buses in 1984, Yang Benli began to improve her work as a conductor by offering more passenger-friendly introductions on the local environment around each stop, including restaurants and scenic spots, and also learned to announce the stops in Shanghai dialect, Cantonese and foreign languages.