Man strips in China after failing to get train ticket

SHANGHAI - A man took off his clothes and confronted a senior railway official in China’s Zhejiang province after he failed to buy a train ticket to go home even after standing in a queue for 14 hours.

A photograph circulated online showed Chen Weiwei, a migrant worker from Central China’s Henan province, clad only in his underwear and confronting an official.

China Daily reported Monday that he had queued up for 14 hours at the west Jinhua railway station in Zhejiang province Jan 17 and 18 only to be told that the tickets he wanted to buy were sold out.

A spokesman of the Shanghai Railway Bureau said the tickets were sold out, and that there was no possibility to help him.

Chen said that he would consider other options of going home, including taking a long-distance bus.

He said that he was eager to return home with his pregnant wife and he had spent a night in the railway station to be in the front of a long line of people aiming to buy train tickets.

Even though he was the third in the long queue, he was still not able to get a ticket.

In rage, he took off his clothes and ran through the railway station. He reached the office of the on-duty director of west Jinhua railway station and sought an explanation.

“If Chen could get a ticket by going naked, I will seriously consider doing the same thing next year,” Gui Yi, a 24-year-old migrant worker in Shanghai, was quoted as saying.