Chinese man has been living at Beijing airport for 14 years because he doesn’t want to give up smoking, drinking
- 29 Mar 2022
Gulf Today Report
Life with the family can be a bit tiring, and many may feel disturbed and trapped by constant family interference. But it seems that a Chinese man took it too seriously, deciding to leave his family and live inside the airport, in the similar manner the American actor Tom Hanks did in the movie “The Terminal.”
Wei Jianguo, a Chinese man in his 60s who was so disturbed by his family life, that the only solution in his view was to move to Beijing Capital International Airport, where he has lived for 14 years.
Unlike Tom Hanks' 2004 movie, The Terminal - where the tourist is forced to live at JFK - Mr. Wee has his food package, belongings and sleeping bag in a waiting area, and can leave the airport at any time, but he doesn't.
According to the Chinese newspaper, "China Daily", the Chinese man decided to take this step; so he can smoke and drink alcohol as much as he likes.
He said in previous statements to the newspaper in 2018, that he would not return home; because then he will have to give up alcohol and smoking, adding, “I can't go home because I have no freedom there.”
"My family told me that if I wanted to stay, I had to stop smoking and drinking," he said.
"If I couldn't do that, I had to give them all the monthly government allowance of 1,000 yuan (£119.43). But how can I buy cigarettes and alcohol?”
After disagreements with his family, he began sleeping in railway stations and the airport, before deciding to settle in the airport completely.
In 2008, he moved to the airport and settled in Terminal 2, which is about 12 miles from his home.
The man said he had given up looking for work and had been given a job in an internal combustion engine factory in his forties."
One of the workers at the airport said Wei had been encouraged to leave several times, "but he was refusing and losing his temper."
According to the China Daily, Wei is not the only resident at the airport, and in 2018 as many as six people were believed to be living like him.
But the world's most famous airport resident remains. Iranian Mehran Karimi Nasseri lived in Charles de Gaulle's Terminal 1 for 18 years — from 1988 until 2006 when he was hospitalised.
