Xiao Shan Going Home

Xiao Shan, a temporary worker at the Hongyuan Restaurant, has just been fired by his boss Zhao Guoqing. He decides to leave Beijing and return to his home in Anyang. Before going, he visits a series of people from his hometown who have also been living in Beijing—construction workers, train ticket scalpers, university students, an attendant, prostitutes—but none of them wants to go back with him. Dispirited and confused, he seeks out one old friend after another still in Beijing. In the end, he leaves his wild long hair, the symbol of his city life, at a roadside barber stand as his offering to Beijing.