Travel Notes 016丨"Northeast Journey" Chapter 16: Looking back at the history by looking at the suspension bridge, looking forward to the future by looking at the road

Time: June 4~5, 2013

Location: Zhalantun, Inner Mongolia

Jingxiang's Travel Notes Chapter 16 丨 "Northeast Journey" Chapter 16

Looking back at history by looking at the suspension bridge, looking forward to the future by looking at the road

The train from Hailar to Zhalantun departs at 15:47. The total distance is 333 kilometers and takes 5 hours and 7 minutes. This is not a long distance, just enjoy the scenery in the car. However, I felt very tired and had cough and nasal congestion. I knew I had a cold. According to traditional Chinese medicine, it was a cold caused by wind-heat. Needless to say, I got sick from the sun on the grassland. The only things I carry with me are Huoxiang Zhengqi Oral Liquid and Niuhuang Jiedu Tablets. These are originally used to prevent stomach upset and heatstroke due to acclimatization, as well as to clear away heat and reduce fire. They have little effect on colds.

The ones you buy along the way are basically upper berths, and the luckiest people will be able to buy middle berths. However, although the upper bunk is inconvenient to climb up and down, the advantage is that it will not be disturbed and you can sleep peacefully. I didn’t have the energy to chat with them today. I just wanted to sleep without any disturbance. But this train allowed me to buy a lower berth. Although I didn’t have to climb up or down, it was still available in the middle and upper berths in broad daylight. People will find a place to sit and chat in the lower bunk.

My luck seemed to be starting to turn bad. When I wanted to buy a bunk, I only had an upper bunk, but when I bought a lower bunk, it became a burden.

The train entered the station 6 minutes late. When it arrived at Zhalantun, it was already 9pm on June 4, 2013. Teacher Bai and his wife came to pick up the train. The most coincidental thing is that Teacher Bai's husband is also surnamed Wang, and he meets another king who can communicate between heaven and earth! Northeastern people are hospitable, enthusiastic and generous. I have already experienced this on the train with Dunhua and Tuqiang, and here is no exception.

Summer nights come very late, and they come even later in the Northeast. It had only been dark for a few minutes, and almost all the shops were already closed. The drugstore at the corner of the street that was the last to close has also closed, so we can only wait until tomorrow to buy medicine.

I figured a little cold would be fine, but I was worried that my early arrival would affect the work of Teacher Bai and his wife—because they both teach in the same school.

However, Teacher Bai made very thoughtful arrangements: "I have class tomorrow morning. You can go to Suspension Bridge Park and Zhalantun Museum. At noon, we will go to Nanmu together. Tomorrow we will go to Molidawa Daur Autonomous Banner, and we will visit the city the day after tomorrow." If you want to visit some scenic spots in the area, you can go to Chenbalhu Banner the day after tomorrow.”

"Okay, come here, everything will follow your arrangements." I am very happy that not only will I complete the three autonomous flags, but I will also be able to stay in an authentic herders' yurt for a day!

How do you know it is authentic? Because the largest grassland in the world is the Hulunbuir Prairie, and the most beautiful grassland in Hulunbuir is in Chenbalhu Banner. Do you think it is authentic?

After settling in, I took a shower and felt that the cold was not as serious as I thought, so I was full of confidence for the next trip.

The next morning, instead of going to the pharmacy, I went directly to Suspension Bridge Park.

The morning sunshine shines on the Central Street, which has only three or four lanes, but the traffic is not crowded. This city with 20 ethnic groups has an urban population of only 160,000.

There was a traffic intersection ahead, and I noticed that there were no pedestrian signals at both ends of the zebra crossing. I thought it was just a few intersections that had not yet been installed. However, even after walking through several intersections, there were still no pedestrian signals, which only meant that the city had a small population and a small number of vehicles.

Strangely, the sidewalks on both sides of the road are very spacious. It feels like the sidewalks are wider than the driveways. This has to be admired by the Zhalantun government for its long-term vision. Cities will always develop, and there will soon be more vehicles. The government has reserved space for future lane expansions, eliminating the trouble of future demolition and huge compensation (picture below: wide sidewalks in Zhalantun).

There is a large-scale breakfast shop on the roadside, and I don’t know how to operate it after entering. When I figured it out, it surprised me – this was a self-service breakfast shop.

Buffets are nothing new. They only cost 30 to 50 yuan per person. Once you pay the bill, you can go in. It’s your business to eat more, less, whether it tastes good or not. Just don’t waste it.

It’s not about paying first here. You go and get what you want to eat, and the waiter will check the food you got on a card in her hand. When you finish eating, you can take the bill to the counter to pay.

Maybe you will say: "What's so strange about this?"

Yes, this kind of business method is not uncommon, but the problem is that there is only one waiter for dozens of tables (there are estimated to be twenty or thirty tables, each of which can seat four to six people)!

Now I got interested: try to see if I can get through it. I got a bowl of porridge first and then a pancake, both of which were recorded by the waiter. When she didn't pay attention to me, I took another omelette and returned to my seat to finish it at normal speed. As a result, she didn't include the omelette when paying the bill. I told her: "Please add a piece of fried egg."

This experiment triggered my deep thinking: If all the citizens were stuck with one or two fried eggs and steamed buns, the restaurant would definitely not be able to continue operating or the checkout rules would have been modified or the number of monitoring staff would have been increased. But looking at their old dining tables and tableware, you can be sure that it is a time-honored brand, which only shows that the folk customs here are simple.

Every city has parks, which are places for citizens to rest and exercise, and also oxygen bars for citizens to breathe fresh air. However, the Suspension Bridge Park in Zhalantun is also a tourist attraction. There is a very special bridge there. This bridge has no piers and relies entirely on iron cables to lift the entire bridge. Just like the net hammock we saw, one end is hung on each of the two trees, and people can walk without touching the ground. Staggering in the net bag. The difference is that the suspension bridge does not sway. Ah, to be precise, it won't shake so exaggeratedly.

The people of Zhalantun regard the suspension bridge as the business card of the city. Many bridges adopt the shape of a suspension bridge in their design. Teacher Bai and his school have a small bridge with a similar design.

There are only two suspension bridges in the world that are more than a hundred years old. One of them is located in Irkutsk, Russia. The other is the suspension bridge in the Zhalantun Suspension Bridge Park. However, it was also built by Tsarist Russia. It records the Russian aristocrats' plundering of resources in Northeast my country. History.

In 1896, the Qing government sent Li Hongzhang to Russia to congratulate the Czar on his coronation. Li Hongzhang is mentioned here again, and another treaty is signed. A weak country has no diplomacy, so I believe everyone must sign.

In order to implement its foreign aggression and expansion plan, Tsarist Russia forced the Qing government to sign the so-called "Sino-Russian Mutual Assistance Treaty against Enemies" and obtained the privilege of building railways in China. In 1897, the foundation stone was laid for the Dongqing Railway. The entire line was opened to traffic in July 1903, with a total length of 2,489.20 kilometers. Northeastern resources continued to flow out of the country and to Russia.

The Russian aristocrats who plundered resources in China built a place dedicated to their enjoyment at the site of the current park, and built this suspension bridge in 1905.

In addition to the suspension bridge in the park, there are of course the monuments to the Soviet Red Army that overthrew Tsarist Russia and supported China's anti-Japanese resistance, and the "Peace Pine" that symbolizes friendship.

Suspension Bridge Park is not only a memorial hall, it can also be said to be an oxygen bar. This 68-hectare garden is the lungs of Zhalantun. The winding paths wind through the dense woods, and the air becomes fresher after sunrise.

I suddenly remembered Liuhua Lake Park in Guangzhou. In cities where surface roads, viaducts, and three-dimensional subway transportation cannot solve traffic congestion, car exhaust fills every corner of the city. But when you walk into Liuhua Lake Park, you will feel that you have entered a clean world and greedily breathe in the relatively clean air.

But in the Suspension Bridge Park in Zhalantun, you won't have such a contrasting feeling, because the cars outside have not yet reached the point of congestion.

How long does it take to see a scenic spot? This is an unanswerable question. Not only does the size of the scenic spot make the visit time variable, but more importantly, the level of detail of your tour is important. In the same scenic spot, the time spent by a tour group following a tour guide is the time it takes to listen to the explanation. If you leave the team and see for yourself, the time required for different purposes varies greatly, especially for exhibition hall-type scenic spots. Most tourists don't read the text, and they are very attentive if they don't gossip about cosmetics and the like while the tour guide is explaining. If you want to read all the texts in the cultural exhibition hall, you have to live in the exhibition hall for a few days. Reading some texts selectively is the most feasible way.

If you just take a photo in front of the exhibition hall, it will be completed in a few seconds. This kind of tourism is called "visit here". Originally, for a nerd like me, Zhalantun Museum would not be out of the museum for an hour or two, but this time I actually "came here for a visit"!

Museums are generally open free of charge. Not to mention that Zhalantun is not a famous scenic spot. Even if it is a famous scenic spot like Jiuzhaigou and Zhangjiajie, most tourists will not stop by the local museum to see it; let alone places that can be reached at any time in China without a visa, even if they are traveling abroad. , most tourists also go to local stores to buy luxury goods, and they don’t even pay much attention to the scenic spots in the itinerary, let alone go to local museums to learn about the local culture – because, for most citizens, traveling is just a kind of leisure. While on vacation, there is no need to study the local culture.

At the moment, I am the only visitor to the museum. There was a big sign at the door with four very eye-catching characters on it - no photography allowed. There is no one watching in the exhibition hall. If I turn off the flash, no one will interfere no matter how I take the photo. But I'm a good citizen and I don't violate the "no photography" rule just because I'm left unattended. Without photos, it would be difficult for me, over fifty years old, to remember the contents. So, after a quick walk around, we came out, and it wasn't even 11 o'clock before we returned to the hotel.

To predict what will happen next, please read Chapter 17 of : Being blessed with wild vegetables, deer farmers are struggling.