Jilin city you don't know.

The trip began with a church, the French Foreign Missionary Society, which was the most active Catholic Missionary Society in Northeast China during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.

The largest Catholic churches in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces were all built by this church, and their architectural styles are similar. They are all gothic buildings with blue bricks and plain faces. Heilongjiang is in Hulan, Liaoning is in Shenyang, and Jilin Province is in Jilin City.

Hulan Catholic church

Shenyang Catholic Church

Jilin Catholic Church (Sacred Heart of Jesus)

At the beginning, the French Foreign Missionaries Association built four churches in Jilin, and now there are two left. The largest one is on the river, called "Sacred Heart of Jesus", which is the most frequented place for tourists.

The other is in the suburbs, called "Notre Dame Church". This is the one I am looking for.

divinity school

Notre Dame Church got its name from Notre Dame Hill, which was named after Notre Dame Cave there.

The cave of Notre Dame was built by a French priest in 1920. It is said that there used to be a big statue of Notre Dame in the cave, but now there is only a small cross.

Notre Dame Hill is far away from the city and surrounded by towering old trees, which is very quiet.

Afraid of disturbing the prayers, I deliberately bypassed the distant steps. But we should also be careful, because it is noisy to step on a fallen dead leaf in the mountains at night.

Notre Dame Cathedral is a white Gothic building, located at the top of the mountain behind the cave, which is very mysterious among the yellow old trees in late autumn.

Besides me, there is a nun on the top of the mountain cleaning up the fallen leaves in the surrounding cemetery.

The two of us kept a tacit understanding of not disturbing each other. She sweeps here and I am there, always at a certain distance.

There is a white marble statue of Jesus under the hillside of the church. The expression of the statue is gentle and kind, which makes people feel tolerant and trustworthy.

In Notre Dame Hill, the missionary society left behind not only the hardware heritage such as Notre Dame caves and churches, but also the spiritual heritage-a seminary, which was also an unexpected discovery of my trip.

I didn't know there was such an institution in China. When I saw the sign of "Jilin Shenzhe College" in front of the gate, I thought it was an alias of the church. After going in, I heard the voice of classroom interaction from the building, and I realized that it was really a school.

The seminary is small, with three floors and two stadiums with Christian symbols painted in the middle.

Coming down from the top of the church, I met a group of boys playing ball, so I chatted with one of them curiously.

I asked them if they really studied here, and he said yes, and they came from many parts of the country as far away as Zhejiang.

I said, how old were you all here? He said that some are junior high schools and some are high schools with different academic qualifications.

Photos in the enrollment brochure of Jilin Shenzhe College

I asked him what he would do after graduating from here, and he said that most of them would be priests. I said priest, but he said almost.

I want to ask him if his parents have any distractions and resentment when he was sent here to engage in religious undertakings at such a young age, but I am afraid of offending others and have no courage to say so.

After thanking the boys, I stood on the steps and watched these young people running on the court. They are like high school students in ordinary schools, talking and laughing, fighting and making trouble. I never thought that they would become priests in the future.

After I came back, I checked the information. At present, there are twelve schools of philosophy in China, the largest of which are in Beijing and Jilin. This house is not too big, but it is very famous.

On the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Jilin Shenzhe College once became an important Catholic educational institution in China.

Jilin has a prominent position in the religious field because it was once the capital of Jilin and the educational center of the French Foreign Missionaries Association in Heiji Province.

Although Jilin is only a small town now, its ancestors are also very rich.

From the Kangxi period to the early years of the Republic of China, except for the years when Manchukuo was taken away by Changchun, Jilin City was always the administrative center, and even the word Jilin in Jilin Province came from this.

From a certain point of view, Jilin Shenzhe College is also a witness to the glorious history of Jilin City, but this is only a very subtle reflection. Some old buildings in Jilin City show more intuitively the inner details of this once provincial capital.

Lin

In a corner of Jilin City, there are two buildings designed by great talents of the Republic of China. One is the auditorium and library of Jilin Provincial University designed by Liang Sicheng, also called Stone Building, and the other is the Jihai Railway Hub designed by Lin.

Jihai Railway Station, now called Jilin West Railway Station, is a Gothic building and was once rated as one of the nine most literary stations in China by CCTV.

It is said that the designer of the station is Lin, and the approver is Liang Sicheng, which is recorded in the description and local chronicles of the station.

However, someone checked the list of designers at the station and found no information related to Lin.

Some people even think that in that era when the local architectural style was called for, such a pure western-style building could not have been built by Lin with a deep national complex.

This suspicion is well-founded, but the designer of this building has always been described as Lin. Even without conclusive evidence, such historical legends cannot be easily denied.

About this matter, I am incompetent and consciously have a reasonable guess.

The existing stone building of Northeast Li Dian University was designed by Liang Sicheng and built in 1929. At that time, Liang Sicheng and Lin just got married the year before last, and went to Europe to return to China to teach in the Department of Architecture of Northeastern University.

The auditorium of Jilin Provincial University is also called Stone Building.

Shitoulou place

Former Jilin Provincial University Library

In the same year, the Jihai Railway Hub was also under construction. The distance between the two buildings, I only need 15 minutes by bike.

In addition, Zhang, then governor of Jilin Province, personally started to promote these two buildings.

Zhangguandi (now Xiguan Hotel)

Zhangguandi (now Xiguan Hotel)

Not far from Shenyang to Jilin, it should be possible for Lin to go to Liang Sicheng's class at that time. The two men were led by Zhang to see the Jihai Railway Station under construction, and it must be a high probability event to ask them to give some advice or guidance.

Then during this period, Lin helped design, and Liang Sicheng finally participated in the examination and approval, so this "misunderstanding" happened.

In modern times, this should be a friendly help, but the person who helped is so famous that the real author is covered up.

However, whether it is designed for Lin or not, this railway station is still worth seeing. Andy Lau, Jacklyn Wu's "If there is love in heaven 3" and Zhang Dongjian's "Amnesia in 2009" have all been filmed here, which is a must-see spot for Jilin City.

Grandpa told me the story of the past.

After filming Jilin West Railway Station and Stone Building, I rode my bike past an old red brick building.

I looked at the door, and there was an old man sweeping the floor, so I asked him if the building was built by the Japanese.

Grandpa said it was built earlier than the Japanese, and it was built in Zhang Jiancheng in 1920. Grandpa said it was a building that matched the Jihai Railway Hub, and it was a railway garage.

I told my uncle that I was here to shoot old buildings. Can you take a picture? Grandpa said, that man, you come in and shoot.

When I entered the door, my uncle gave me a full guide. First, show me the building on the left, saying that it is a truck factory, and then say, you see, this thing has been repaired before, and there have been no cracks for so many years.

I asked uncle, what is going on here now.

Grandpa said that a locomotive factory here and next to it was previously under the control of the railway bureau, and later the locomotive factory was under the control of the municipal government, and the building was demolished. This is still under the management of the railway bureau. Jilin City asked Shenyang Railway Bureau for it, but the railway bureau did not give it.

Grandpa said that at first there were four railway bureaus in Northeast China, Qiqihar, Harbin, Jilin and Shenyang, and then there were only two, Harbin and Shenyang.

The area under the management of Shenyang Railway Bureau is particularly large, even Wuchang in Heilongjiang and a place south of Mudanjiang are under its control. Such a large area, it won't care about such a small place, so it has been abandoned.

Grandpa said that this place became an oxygen factory during the Korean War to supply the front line to resist US aggression and aid Korea.

In the past, only Shenyang, Qiqihar and Mudanjiang in Northeast China could produce oxygen. Later, Jilin transferred two German-made oxygen-making equipment from Mudanjiang, and transferred 15 workers. At that time, there was no train, and the workers all came by carriage and ran for half a month.

After the war, the oxygen factory moved away in 2007 because it was too close to the railway.

I asked uncle, how do you know so much? You know everything. Grandpa said that he worked in this oxygen factory and later retired. There is also the family building of the former worker nearby. He also needs heating and looks at the water pipes. He's here to watch.

I asked my uncle how old he was this year and he said 72. I say you should catch up with the war. My uncle said that he was only two or three years old at the beginning of the liberation war, and he was as tall as a kang.

Grandpa said he had seen Lin Biao, and then he introduced me to the war.

Grandpa said that his family lived in a village in the north of Jilin (I didn't catch the exact name).

In the early days of the war of liberation, it was a tug-of-war. Today, the Kuomintang is in power, and tomorrow, the * * * production party is in power.

There are guards near their village, one is the Kuomintang and the other is the * * * production party.

When it comes to this matter, uncle really doesn't want to bury the Kuomintang, because now the leaders of the * * * production party say good things about the * * production party.

At that time, his family had few quilts. When Kuomintang soldiers stand guard, they grab quilts when it's cold, but the production party won't.

* * * Even when the producers came to live, they spread straw on the ground and lived on the ground to help carry water before coming.

Uncle said that his family had been at war, and soldiers of the * * * production party could be seen climbing over their heads in the distance, and all the Kuomintang soldiers came by car.

His five brothers and sisters, as soon as they heard the gunshots, his father told them to lie on the ground in front of the window, with sticks in their hands, and hit anyone whose head leaked, and get up when the gunshots disappeared.

The shrine site built by Japanese in Jilin city.

Uncle said that his father went to a private school and knew how to study. Deng Hua of the * * * production party also asked his father to follow the * * * production party and do some paperwork, but his mother wouldn't let him because the five children were left unattended.

Later, Lin Biao went to his home, where he got a hand-cranked generator and sent a telegram. He stayed for a whole week, and the ticking kept him awake.

Grandpa said that Deng Hua was a tall and handsome man who almost touched the door frame when he entered the room. Lin Biao is small and thin.

My uncle told me about the war of liberation, saying that Changchun was not fighting at that time, but was besieged. The Kuomintang was surrounded by the * * * production party, and Siping and Linjiang were badly fought. Many old people died in Siping, and there was a big cemetery.

That afternoon, I talked with my uncle for a long time, but I didn't like it. I want to talk to him again the next day, and time doesn't allow.

Finally, when I was leaving, my uncle asked me to publicize Jilin city more. I told him, no problem, I will definitely fool more people.

Moses on the plains

I don't think I can do what my uncle gave me, but I don't have to worry. When Moses on the Plain is released, there will be a large number of friends punching in.

"Moses on the Plain" is a double crime mystery novel, which was adapted into a film starring Zhou Dongyu. The shooting location is in the area of Hadawan Carbon Factory in Jilin City.

This time, I came to Jilin City to look for the location of this film. As a result, because I checked a few more articles, I turned my trip into a tour of old buildings in Jilin City and stayed in Jilin City for three more days.

Hadawan used to have many factories, including carbon factory, cement factory, paper mill and ferroalloy factory. Now the cement factory has moved, the paper mill has closed, and the ferroalloy factory is ready to sell, but there is no market. The carbon factory has been sold to a private company, and the benefits have been good in the past two years.

cement plant

ferroalloy works

Carbon factory

In recent years, the residential areas near these large factories remain the same, especially with the flavor of the 1980 s and 1990 s. Above the street is a rusty steel pipe, and at the corner is an old newsstand. The residential building is still the old red brick tube-shaped building. In some corners, the old signs and facades still remain. In several places, Moses photographed the scenery on the plains.

It was a little hot before the film was released, and young people often came to punch in. The aunt at the corner newsstand is very impatient. I went to ask her where the film was made that day. She rolled her eyes a few times and said there was nothing to shoot. This was the first time.

It is normal for aunt not to understand the tourists' ideas, because what tourists want to see is exactly what they want to get rid of. These old things have no tourist value and have no significance in the real life of local people.

The road in this shanty town is still bumpy, and tap water will not be available until the second half of 2020. In the past, residents here had to carry their own water to drink.

On the day I went, I met an old man sweeping the floor in a narrow alley. He thought I had something to do with the demolition, so he came to take photos and measure, and he chatted with me for a while.

He said that when he left his rural hometown to go to the city, he thought that he could live a good life without poverty. He didn't expect to stay in shanty towns all his life. There is no hope of demolition at present, so it is better to stay in the countryside and live a good life.

Grandpa kept sighing and talking. At first I tried to comfort him, but later I didn't know what to say. After saying goodbye to my uncle, I buttoned the camera cover.

Moses in the title of Moses on the Plain is a prophet representing redemption in Christianity, but who will be their Moses for people here?

When I wrote this, I thought of the boys who played basketball in Shenzhen-Zhejiang College and worked as clerks in the future. What is the biggest trouble in their lives? Can they get rid of material troubles?

I wish I could see the world in their religion.

Record the northeast in my eyes, don't sell prejudices, don't play the fool fully distracted.