Lao Lan’s Travel Notes 31丨Building Dreams in Chongqing

In the 1980s, going to college in Chongqing was not a personal wish. My ambition at that time was to go to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Dalian.

I don’t know anything about Chongqing: I don’t know that Chongqing is the capital, I don’t know that Chongqing is located in the Southwest, I don’t know that Chongqing belongs to Sichuan, I don’t know where Chongqing is in the motherland, I don’t know that Chongqing doesn’t grow watermelons, doesn’t produce persimmons, doesn’t produce Sweet potatoes and corn. Not to mention that Chongqing is a mountain city. There are bangbangs in the mountain city, and there are Sichuan girls who know how to curse, walk barefoot, carry heavy loads, and use curse words.

My university goals were Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University, and Dalian Ocean University. My ideals were to go to the sky (astronomy), go to the earth (physics), and go to the sea (oceanography). However, I was admitted to Chongqing University without knowing it and learned the most basic mechanics. engineering.

I heard from Sister Xinmei, who admitted freshmen, that my scores should be admitted to the Physics Department of Fudan University. But the admission staff of Chongqing University snatched away the academic files. She believed that Chongqing University was also a good key university, so she did not disclose it. For me, although I have no choice but to be born in a rural area, I am very satisfied to be able to enter a big city.

The teacher who admitted new students happened to be my future counselor. He said that the reason for snatching my file was that my foreign language scores were very high. It's a pity that he was deceived. I relied on my genius memory to learn foreign languages, and my practical skills were so poor that I failed to pass CET-4 when I graduated from college.

So, at the age of nineteen, he was settled in Chongqing. It is fixed in Chongqing University, which has a glorious gm tradition and is known as Southwest Tsinghua University.

The road to Chongqing is very difficult. It takes three days and four nights to take the green train from Shanxi to Chongqing, and four days and three nights to come back. What I saw and heard along the way was the violence of the migrant Sichuan brothers and the shrewdness of the runaway Sichuan girls. It was crowded, chaotic and noisy everywhere. The train is crowded with people, with fronts touching backs, Sichuan brothers and Sichuan girls mixing together, and there is no longer a distinction between men and women.

Chongqing is a mountain city with many stairs. But the street signs are all labeled as Main Street. Most of the people on the street are thin and have high voices. The women wore very little clothing and their feet were definitely bare. Some shoulders are also half-naked, and their tops are so small that you can even see the edges of their breasts. The stickmen who carry burdens on the street are wearing dirty clothes. They are not tall but very strong. They can carry things with bare feet and run very fast on the steps shouting slogans.

In those days, for people born in the northern countryside, building a building was a luxury. Moreover, the buildings we saw were only three or four floors, with the highest being only six floors. But there were many buildings in Chongqing at that time, and six-story buildings were very common. The tall ones can have more than ten floors.

The buildings in Chongqing are very old, perhaps because it rains all year round. Chongqing rarely has clear skies, rarely has the sun, and has even fewer stars and moon. Of course, the feeling is very different now: the floor has been given color and shape, and the old image has been covered up.

In 1987, I went to Mount Emei with people from Chongqing and saw a normal sunrise. The people from Chongqing cheered with excitement. When I arrived in Chongqing, my mother brought me two pairs of handmade cloth shoes, as if to send my son to join the army. But only two months after arriving in Chongqing, both pairs of shoes had green hair on them, so they had to throw them away. Chongqing is too humid!

At that time, Chongqing still had long-braided buses, and the number 2 tram was often taken from Lianglu intersection to Shapingba. The car is always crowded with people. Don't expect to ride a bike. The roads in Chongqing are winding roads, so you are not allowed to ride bicycles. There were no bicycles in Chongqing at that time.

Now, Chongqing has built the most beautiful highway in the world. The buses with long flaps can no longer run, and they have been replaced by the weirdest subway in the world. This subway can not only go underground, but also go to the top of the mountain. What's weird is that the subway passes through the building.

There was a Jialing brand motorcycle in Chongqing, which should be the earliest domestically produced motorcycle. But at that time it was still a luxury product and could not be seen on the streets. Later, when Japanese Honda motorcycles became popular across the country, Jialing Motorcycles transformed and produced Jialing brand sewing machines.

Bamboo is a southern plant. The gifts I received when I returned from Chongqing during my first vacation were a bamboo basket and the cheapest bananas. I brought three baskets with me, but my aunt and uncle snatched them as soon as I entered the house. I carried two or three kilograms of bananas with me, but I was reluctant to eat them all the way. When I got home, they were black on the outside and soft on the inside. But he was also robbed by his younger siblings. Everything is fine!

Tourism was not popular at that time, so after arriving in Chongqing, I always wanted to understand the local customs, just like a writer experiencing life. I dreamed of getting to know a Chongqing family and seeing how they endured hardship and lived. During my four years in college, I only experienced hot summers, continuous rain, and rows of mountains, but I never entered a Chongqing family: I felt ashamed at that time, and every family in Chongqing urban area was rich.

At that time, I was staying in Chongqing as a wanderer, so I lost many opportunities to stay in Chongqing. Now that I think about it, what I cared about at that time was not Chongqing, but my hometown.

Suddenly I felt that I had a lot of concerns about Chongqing. Chongqing’s new development, Chongqing’s classmates, Chongqing’s alma mater, and the younger generation’s yearning for Chongqing often bring back proud memories of Chongqing. It seems as if Chongqing is my hometown.

The former classmates were in their prime, and the friendship between classmates is unforgettable. Now I have reached different positions, some of which have prominent positions. But I still feel that they still have the impression of Chongqing. Just like a female classmate is still a female classmate, the closest teacher is still the counselor.

Guanyin Bridge is not a strange place name, but it feels strange every time I come here, as if this place is always changing. There are many such places, such as Lianglukou, Loquat Park, Shiqiaopu, and Xiaolongkan. To this day, it is still impossible to distinguish the southeast, northwest and northwest of Chongqing, and even a simple location map cannot be drawn. I feel that Chongqing is always the Chongqing in my impression, which is different from the printed map.

I have been to Chongqing Railway Station at least ten times so far, but I still can't picture the whole train station in my mind, let alone the surrounding buildings.

I drove to Chongqing a few years ago and followed the navigation guide and drove around one place several times. When you get off the car, ask, it's the next step. But the car has to go around. It is better to ask locals to get on the bus and give directions before arriving. It feels like you've arrived home but can't find the door.

It has been more than thirty years since I left Chongqing. Logically speaking, there is no longer any relationship with Chongqing. But there will always be things related to Chongqing of one kind or another, and they can be solved in one go. Over the past few years, it seems that I have become a Chongqing expert and an agent in Chongqing, involuntarily.

Chongqing has changed a lot over the years. Even Chongqing University has changed its location and its gate, forming a bigger appearance.

On August 31, 1984, the first day I entered Chongqing, the first classmate I met was named Liang Songqian, who was from Zhejiang. During the four years of college, we have always cherished this friendship. After graduation, I gave him a Chinese rubber chess set and he gave me a harmonica. The harmonica is still in storage today, not rusty at all and sounds great.

Yanjiang Road is the lasting memory of the university. In fact, this road is very ordinary and has no special signs. Even at that time, people were talking about it, saying that this was the road to love, as if there were ready-made girls waiting for someone to choose. But after four years of searching on that road, there was no chance of an affair.

The yellow horn tree is the symbol of Chongqing. There is a special yellow horn tree in Chongqing University. Regardless of whether you have had an affair or not, if you take a photo under this tree or even climb up to this tree and pat the trunk, you will feel that your desire to return to school has been fulfilled. This tree has the same feeling as the big locust tree in Linfen.

The water in the Democracy Lake is always so clear and translucent. The lights of the dormitories are reflected in the water. The tree-lined avenue is dotted with the silhouettes of girls and boys, and echoes of controversial sounds that reach the treetops. Occasionally, I still think of a frog or two. When I woke up, I found that it was still the eternal dream.