Xinning Railway, a “Poetry of Machines” An exploration of Taishan’s “purdah” resources

In Taishan, Chen Yixi’s name is well-known to every household, and his name is always connected with the Xinning Railway, like an inseparable whole. Although it seems now that Chen Yixi and the Xinning Railway are somewhat tragic, their value is no longer a railway that no longer exists, but an evocative poem, a unique culture of the hometown of overseas Chinese. A spirit that will always encourage future generations.

Tragic Railway Poetry

"When we arrived at Tanjiang, the train stopped. The wheels did not move, but the scenery outside began to move slowly. This is not a miracle, this is The most beautiful section of the Xinning Railway. There is no bridge here. The train sails onto the ship and stays on the ship, letting the ship carry it slowly across the river. Looking at all this, I feel a kind of poetry. Love. I seem to have read a real poem."

Ba Jin's prose "The Poetry of Machines" describes the spectacle of China's only ship-carrying train crossing the river, making the Xinning Railway remain in Chinese literature. Treasure house and gain eternal life. However, the ship described by Ba Jin was bombed and sunk by the Japanese invaders at 1:30 pm on October 15, 1937. After that, the Japanese invaders carried out dozens of brutal bombings on the Xinning Railway, and many important facilities were destroyed. Blow up. On December 12, 1938, Xu Jingtang, director of the Jiangmen Office of the Fourth Route Army of the Kuomintang, ordered the Xinhui and Taishan county governments to completely destroy the Xinning Railway. From then on, the Xinning Railway ceased to exist. On November 20, 1959, the Xinning Railway Company Property Liquidation Committee commissioned the Second Salvage Team of the Navigation Engineering Bureau of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Shipping to fish it up in Niuwan and remove more than 1,000 tons of steel.

Immortal devotion to the country

Xinning is the former name of Taishan, and the person who built the Xinning Railway was Chen Yixi, an overseas Chinese in Taishan who served his country and loved his hometown.

Chen Yixi (1844-1929), courtesy name Changting, was born in Langmei Village, Doosan, Xinning (Taishan). He immigrated to the United States in 1864 and worked in railway construction in the United States for 40 years, accumulating a wealth of railway experience. Engineering and technical experience. The construction of the Western Railway in the United States promoted urban construction and economic prosperity along the way. He was deeply inspired and set up his great ambition to build a railway for his motherland. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Qing government was corrupt, and people at that time advocated "industry to save the country." Chen Yixi strongly supported this idea. He changed his original plan to invest in and establish a Huayang Weaving Factory in Hong Kong, decided to return to his hometown to build railways, and became the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office Industrial Co., Ltd. The first person.

Since the beginning of the preparations for the construction of Xinning Railway, there has been a distinct patriotic spirit. Chen Yixi said: "I was angry at the time when my country's road rights were in the hands of outsiders. I did not care about the meagerness and advocated the construction of Ning Road." He called for "no foreign shares, no foreign money, no foreign workers". Advocating the construction of Xinning Railway was supported by county people and overseas Chinese. During the preparation process, Chen Yixi encountered many obstacles and contradictions. According to the 9th issue of Taishan's "Xinning Magazine" in 1910: "People of all surnames and ethnic groups rarely rely on their dominance of dragons, panoramas, and tigers, and strictly enforce the limits of their own borders. Some people may be superstitious about Feng Shui and rebel, or some may There are those who rely on power to rebel. As the project progressed, there were dozens of attempts, and the line was forced to bend track in 29 places. "Despite the many obstacles ahead, the Xinning Railway was completed after 14 years of construction. At a cost of 8 million yuan, 138 kilometers of railways were built, all planned and constructed by Chinese, which marked the glorious history of my country's independent railway construction.

In recognition of his achievements, the Xinning Board of Directors erected a bronze statue for him at Taicheng Railway Station. Chen Yixi, who was 76 years old at the time, expressed four major aspirations that he would continue to work hard on: 1. The first is to build the Niuwan Railway Bridge, the second is to build the Yangjiang Branch Line, the third is to prepare for the construction of hydraulic and electric lights in Taishan Quanyi, and the fourth is to develop the Taishan Hot Spring Bathhouse. He said emotionally: "This is all about the interests of the local government. The four goals have been achieved, and Yixi's wishes are so comforting." Chen Yixi's four wishes are enough to move people even if they are heard today. . Of course, this ambition has been fully realized by latecomers: hydroelectric power generation, development of Sanhe Hot Spring, completion of Gongyi Bridge, opening of the Western Coast Expressway, etc. These have surpassed Chen Yixi's ideals back then.

The prosperity of the past

Saving the country through industry has been the dream of many overseas Chinese in the past, and the Xinning Railway is Chen Yixi’s effort to turn this dream into reality. It has a profound impact on the development of the hometown of overseas Chinese. quite a positive impact.

It is said that the Xinning Railway operates in two ways: trains and trams. The construction of the railway and the extension of later railway operations led to the prosperity of Wuyi highway construction and water transportation at that time. In Taishan alone, 387 kilometers of roads were built from 1925 to 1937. Water transportation formed a water transportation network in Taishan, Jiangmen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Zhaoqing, Wuzhou and other places; at the same time, it promoted the prosperity of Wei towns along the Xinning Railway. Wei towns such as Daze, Siqian, Gongyi, Dajiang, Taicheng, and Doosan all prospered because of the Xinning Railway. Taishan, Xinhui, and Jiangmen quickly built modern factories such as machinery, electricity, papermaking, and sugar. The cultural and educational undertakings developed unprecedentedly, placing the economic development of Jiangmen Siyi County at the forefront of the national county-level economy at that time. It is not difficult to imagine that if the Xinning Railway had been in operation to this day, the lush green fields of Taishan would have been a modern city with many high-rise buildings.

Chen Yixi’s patriotic spirit has always inspired and inspired thousands of overseas Chinese at home and abroad to work tirelessly to build their motherland and hometown.

According to relevant personnel from the Taishan Municipal Archives Bureau, in September last year, an overseas Chinese living in New York in Taishan City returned to China and contacted China, intending to rebuild the Xinning Railway. However, today’s Taishan and even China as a whole are very different from the situation at that time. Among them The Xintai Expressway runs through the north and south of Taishan City, and the Guangdong and Western Coastal Expressway runs through the east and west sides of Taishan City. Taishan City has convenient access to water, land and water, and highways extend in all directions. Relevant people believe that if the Xinning Railway is rebuilt, the significance will outweigh the actual results, and it may even face long-term operating losses due to historical, geographical and economic development limitations.

Searching in the Rain

After several decades of wind and rain, today’s Xinning Railway only leaves a train station located in the fields of Sijiu Town, Taishan City, and what is now Jiangmen The former site of Jiangmen City North Street Railway Station used by the Customs as a library. In order to preserve this cultural heritage that illuminates Taishan, Taishan City has made a lot of efforts. Now, Chen Yixi’s former residence is listed as a key cultural relic protection unit in Guangdong Province. The bronze statue and monument of Chen Yixi located in the Taicheng Commercial Pedestrian Street Square are Jiangmen City As a key cultural relic protection unit, Taishan City has also made efforts to declare "Chen Yixi and Xinning Railway" as "Chinese Archival Documentary Heritage". If on this basis, the cultural essence of the Xinning Railway and the tourism effect of Chen Yixi’s former residence are further explored, it will greatly promote the construction of Taishan as a cultural city and provide valuable information for the city to build a cultural city with the characteristics of an overseas Chinese hometown. wealth.

Chen Yixi’s former residence is in Meitang Village, Doosan Town. In the rain, only two three-story houses were erected in the farmland in the countryside, with blue bricks and black tiles, and the traditional Lingnan old house-style roofs and roofs. The hardwood door, in the sudden heavy rain in July in the south, carries a century-old depth. Most of the villagers in Meitang Village are surnamed Chen, and they all moved here from Langmei Village with Chen Yixi in the early years. The two large houses in Chen Yixi's former residence are more than a hundred years old, and his relatives have always lived in the former residence. Less than 500 meters away from his former residence, there is a rather Western-style building built by the pond. It was Chen Yixi's library, which was later used as a school. It is said that Chen Yixi lived here in his later years. After seeing the Xinning Railway that he worked so hard to run be taken over, he became insane after returning to his hometown. However, he still talked nonsense and never forgot about building railways and opening up commercial ports. In 1929, Chen Yixi passed away in grief and indignation. As many as ten thousand people attended the funeral. During the funeral, it rained heavily, as if God shed tears in mourning.

The commemorative bronze statue of Chen Yixi that stood at the train station was demolished during the "Cultural Revolution", but history is notarized. Chen Yixi's patriotism in benefiting one country has been admired by people. In 1984, the Taishan County People's Government restored Chen Yixi's commemorative bronze statue according to its original appearance. Under the bronze statue was a passage from the Taishan County People's Government at that time: "A stone can be broken, but its strength cannot be taken away; a pill can be polished, but the collar will fade away." It is red; the bronze statue of Chen Yixi was destroyed during the Ten Years of Catastrophe, but its glorious image of patriotism and hometown is indelible. In order to commemorate Chen Gong’s achievements in opening up transportation in his hometown and praise his perseverance and fighting spirit, his bronze statue was rebuilt.

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