Illustration: Xia Qing/Global Times

In Chinese metropolises, commuting time is an important indicator which affects people's happiness and quality of life, especially amongst the young. According to a recent report, more than 14 million city residents had to endure an "extreme commute" spending more than one hour per day on commuting in 2021. Among them, nearly 6 million are young people. Many factors, such as much higher housing costs in the city center, have prevented young people from living near their companies. In the eyes of many city dwellers, commuting can be categorized as the most terrible time of day. Besides exhaustion, long commuting time can have repercussions on one's health and working efficiency. Even for those who are ambitious in achieving a successful career, spending too much time on commuting can still wear away their will and patience. As a result, fleeing the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen has become a social phenomenon. The length of commuting time has become an important indicator as to whether a city can attract more talented. As a response, cities, metropolises in particular, should make more efforts to put forward measures to curtail city dwellers' commuting time.