North of Mohe丨Encounter in Shenyang

Song Dandan said that the quality of sleep is high even if you are careless. I’m probably talking about people like me who can sleep on a bumpy train until they wake up naturally. When I woke up, it was already 2:30 in the afternoon. The train arrived in Siping, still two hours away from Shenyang.

There were small tables and chairs in the corridor of the sleeper train. I brought a notepad and pen and wrote down what I had experienced in the past two days by the window. Things outside the window flashed by quickly, including chimneys emitting white smoke in the distance, white snowflakes on the ground, and an unchanging desolate scene. Everything looked even more desolate under the warm yellow sunlight. Maybe they'll come back to life in the spring, but I won't see it.

As soon as we exited the train station, smoke billowed from behind the huge sunbird sculpture. On one side are the facilities of modern big cities such as subways and high-rise buildings, and on the other are chimneys that appear from time to time in the distance. These two images together create the first impression of Shenyang. Later I heard that it was a heating chimney.

Another interesting detail is that at subway stations in Guangzhou, such as Huijiang Subway Station, the street signs at the subway entrances say "Huijiang Station", but the sign at Guangzhou South Station only says "Guangzhou South Station". The Shenyang North Railway Station subway station will be strictly written with "Shenyang North Railway Station Station".

Go north to Qingnian Street in Shenyang, change one stop to Huaiyuan Gate, and stay at a youth hostel called Ouyu. This is a youth hostel located in a residential building. The owner rents two floors. Noisy upstairs is allowed, but downstairs must be quiet. The receptionist checked me in simply. Like most ordinary youth hostels, it had wooden bunk beds. My aunt lives in a tent in the living room.

After settling in, we went out to find something to eat. After a short walk downstairs, you will enter Zhongjie, the first commercial pedestrian street in China. When you go shopping in a commercial street at night, you can only take a general look. The only thing that catches the eye is the lights, all kinds of lights, but you can't take a closer look at the building itself. Some heavy industrial equipment often appears on the streets, telling travelers about the history of Shenyang's heavy industry. Now, after reconstruction, they can only stay there quietly for exhibition.

Hiding in an underground snack street, I didn't know what to think. Instead of turning to the Internet to find some authentic food, I ordered a bowl of Beijing stewed stew. This is a dish that Wang Ju has criticized. It is not particularly delicious.

Then, we followed the navigation to Shenyang Spring and looked for a cup of coffee. I haven’t had a cup of coffee during my stay in Mohe, and finally I have a place where I can have a cup! Shenyang Spring, under the banner of "Chinese Design", has integrated a lot of industrial elements into the shopping mall, even the escalators.

I went up to an unknown number of floors and finally found this cafe. The store is not small, with various old objects on display, but the bar uses an aluminum tabletop and various white elements. The clerk said that it would be closing soon and could only take it away in paper cups. He did not let me sit and drink coffee in the old building. Thinking about it carefully, this seems to be the only time I drank Kenya from a paper cup, drinking while walking, which gave me the feeling of eating breakfast while walking to the classroom at school.

I walked back to the youth hostel, Shenyang after dark, do you think it is any different?

A group of little sisters came to another room of the youth hostel. They might have gone out in a group and played card games in the living room. I felt it was noisy, so I went downstairs. Someone had already arrived in the living room downstairs, and a girl was playing the guitar in the darkness. Following the dim light of the night light, I sneaked into the kitchen, boiled water, drank tea and wrote in my diary. Later, the girl stopped playing the guitar and talked to her best friend on the phone. Probably, a good gay friend confessed to her, which made her extremely distressed.

The so-called chance encounter is to see or hear, just like two rays on the same horizontal plane that converge at one point and never intersect again. Fortunately, we are still on the same plane and have the opportunity to meet. Those on different planes cannot be seen no matter where they extend.