[Going to the Grassroots in the Spring Festival] Young Hope on the Slow Train
On January 11th, two young people on the train were greeting their friends on the platform at Feng Hong Station, Xide County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
For Yi villagers living in the mountains, the 5633/4 slow train is not an ordinary train, but a "market car" for mountain people, a "bus" for seeking medical treatment and going to school, and a moped on the way out of poverty. He Ruiming/photo
On January 10th, on the 5634 train from Panzhihua to Puxiong, the children who went home during the winter vacation lay prone on the window to watch the scenery. The slow train sent these school children out of the mountains in batches, and escorted them on their way home at this time of family reunion.
On January 11th, on the 5633 train, four young people were playing mobile phones and watching a drama. Three of them are teachers who go home on winter vacation.
On January 10th, on the 5634 train, policeman Lu Minggang helped Yi people tie sheep. In order to facilitate the Yi villagers along the line to carry livestock and go to the market, the train has specially set up carriages for storing livestock and heavy luggage.
On January 10th, passengers on the slow train. Among them are children who go home on holiday, old people who visit relatives and friends, and young people who go out to work.
On January 11th, on the 5633 train, young people were chatting. They will go to Xichang, and then take a bus from Xichang to Dongguan, Guangdong for short-term work.
On January 10th, on the platform of Xide Station, Shen Xuezhong gave the new clothes he bought to his father who came to pick up the station. Shen Xuezhong, a math teacher at Puxiong Ethnic School, returned to Puxiong Town from Xichang with his wife.
On January 10th, on the first day of Spring Festival travel rush, Wang Jun, Luo Hua and Wang Min, who were studying in Xichang No.2 Primary School, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, took the No.5634 train from Xichang Station and returned to their hometown in Puxiong Town. In the swaying carriage, three people wrote winter vacation homework against the sunshine outside the window. The slow train sent these school children out of the mountains in batches, and escorted them on their way home at this time of family reunion.
The 5633/4 train is a green-skinned slow train connecting Puxiong Town, Yuexi County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, with a total length of 353 kilometers. It has been running through the Great Liangshan Mountain in southwest China since 1970. Among the 26 stops, many are small platforms in Liangshan Yi area. These small platforms are too fast for cars to get on, and most local people rely on this slow train for travel. At present, there are 81 pairs of similar slow trains in China, mainly running in remote areas of southwest, northwest and northeast China.
For the Yi villagers living in the mountains, the No.5633/4 slow train is not an ordinary train, but a market car for the mountain people and a moped on the way out of poverty. On January 11th, 38-year-old Adi Xiamo stood in the corner of the carriage with a chicken in his arms. She got on the bus from Shamalada Station and got off at Xide Station. This time she went out to sell chickens in the market and exchange money for new clothes for her five children for the New Year.
In addition to selling the local products in the mountains, the villagers also buy daily necessities by car. Ma ‘ermu sipped her two-month-old son and stood at the junction of the carriages, surrounded by woven bags filled with potatoes and sweet potatoes. There are eight pigs in his family, and he goes down the mountain by slow train every month to buy pig feed.
The cost of taking the slow train is low, and the cheapest ticket is only 2 yuan. Shen Xuezhong is a math teacher at Puxiong National Middle School. On this day, he started from Xichang Station and passed through Xide Station near his hometown. After giving the new clothes he bought to his father who picked up the station, he took a bus to Puxiong Station, the destination. The fare for this section is only more than ten yuan.
Cheap ticket prices reduce the cost of buying and selling goods, and also increase the opportunities for young people in the mountains to get in touch with the outside world. The Chinese name of Nipo A Mu is Wang Rui, who just graduated from junior high school. The next day, Spring Festival travel rush, together with four other students, set off from his hometown of Xide, changed to a bus in Xichang, and went to Dongguan, Guangdong Province for short-term work. He said that during the Spring Festival, there was a shortage of workers in Dongguan, so it was easier to find a job. By mid-February, when the migrant workers returned to Dongguan after the Spring Festival, they would return home.
Lu Minggang, a Yi policeman, dedicated his youth to the slow train. At the age of 37, he has been working on the railway for 15 years. Lu Minggang is an "iron second generation", and his father, Amizi Hei, used to be an investigator at Puxiong station police station. The Chinese surname "Lu" was changed by his father to commemorate "Railway". In addition to daily patrols and maintaining order, Lu Minggang often helps Yi villagers get on and off the bus to catch chickens and tie sheep.
Whenever passing by Xide Station, the Martyrs Cemetery outside the station always attracts the attention of the train conductor He Dan, where the martyrs who died for the construction of chengdu-kunming railway are buried. In her view, although there is no speed of high-speed rail, this train still inherits the spirit of "serving the people" of the railway soldiers who built the railway that year. It provides economic and convenient transportation for people living in the depths of the Great Liangshan Mountain, connects the young people here with the outside world, and carries the hope of getting rid of poverty and getting rich from generation to generation.