Dian-Guangxi Cycling Tour——Bisezhai Railway Station
I first took a long-distance ride to Qinghai Lake ten years ago. I started taking long-distance rides every year to see the scenery, taste delicious food from various places, explore foreign cultures, and record the delicious food, beautiful scenery and beautiful things on the way. It has gradually formed a habit.
The route is planned in detail every spring and travel in summer. In 2020, the route and itinerary were not determined due to the epidemic.
Finally, the epidemic gradually disappeared in the summer, and a 50-day trip from Kunming, Yunnan to Beihai, Guangxi was planned.
This trip started from Kunming, Yunnan and ended in Beihai City, Guangxi, covering more than 2,000 kilometers in 51 days.
Departing from Yanping Station on the evening of September 13, 2020, arriving in Kunming, Yunnan on September 15 to start this journey, until flying back from Beihai City in the afternoon of November 4 Fuzhou ended successfully. Although I have ridden long distances in Yunnan twice (once from Kunming to Shangri-La and once from Lugu Lake to Tengchong), this time I chose to go to Guangxi. It can be said that every day on the road is new.
After confirming the route and itinerary, I made a guide on the Blackbird software a few days in advance. With ten years of long-distance experience, the planning for each distance and climb was in place. The cycling tour involves riding about 50 kilometers a day, half a day riding and half a day traveling.
Nowadays, the memory of the road is a bit blurry. Looking at my travel diary, I want to share my journey with friends who are interested as soon as possible.
(September 28) D14 Get up this morning, the weather is fine, at 8 o'clock: set off for the Bisezhai Railway Station (built in 1903, designed by the French, French style) more than ten kilometers away. ) This scenic spot has retained most of its original appearance and is worth a visit. After 11 o'clock, we left and rode towards today's destination, Mingjiu Town. It is now the fruit season in Yunnan. The fruit farmers at the stalls along the way sell cheap and high-quality fruits. Buying a lot will only increase the burden.
Mingjiu Town is more than 1,800 meters above sea level. Starting from the urban area of Mengzi (1,200 meters above sea level), the 40-kilometer journey is a continuous climb up and down.
As soon as I arrived at Mingjiu Town at 5:30 in the evening, I saw a row of beef and mutton restaurants. As soon as I settled in my accommodation, I started with beef hot pot.
I heard that Mingjiu Town is going to the market tomorrow, so I plan to rest in Mingjiu Town for a day.
Bisezhai Station covers an area of 2 square kilometers, and the entire station is within the scope of key cultural relics protection. Bisezhai Station Building is located at the north end of the station, facing east-west. It is a French-style brick and wood structure building with red tiles and yellow walls. It has a first floor and a bottom, with a height of 11.5 meters, a width of 25.5 meters in five rooms, a depth of 10.2 meters, and a wide platform. 25 meters in length and 4 meters in depth, it is the Kunhe Railway Station. Next to Bisezhai Station is the dormitory for French employees.
Due to the thick accumulation of historical dust, limited traffic conditions and remote geographical location, Bisezhai Station still retains intact ancient buildings, ancient cultural relics, ancient heritage, etc.
Bisezhai Station still retains many historical relics: Datong Company, water tower, station building, train station clock, police station, French employees’ dormitory, Columbus Hotel, red clay tennis court, and even There is a grape tree planted by the French back then, etc.
For more than 30 years since 1910, Bise Village has played the role of the largest station along the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. The warehouses were filled with large amounts of tin, furs and rice waiting to be transported abroad. The whistles of trains and the horns of porters kept ringing day and night. French, British, American, German, Japanese and Greek people arrived one after another and opened businesses here. Banks, restaurants, department stores, post offices. Many companies such as the American Mobil Sander Water and Fuel Company, the French Asia Water and Fuel Company, the German Texaco Water and Fuel Company, etc. have set up transfer stations and warehouses here. The most famous of the foreign banks is the Swiss Bank run by the Greek and Swiss brothers.
The Gebishi Railway is a very unique narrow-gauge railway in the history of railway construction in China. It is narrower than the Yunnan-Vietnam Narrow Gauge Railway! It starts from Baoxiu Town in Shiping County in the west, passes through Jianshui and Jijie Town in the east, and "connects" with the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway at Bisezhai Station. The reason why the word "connection" is put in quotation marks is because it is not really connected. Instead, two stations were built in Bisezhai, where trains of different gauges stop respectively. To transfer goods here, the goods must be loaded and unloaded. It can only be achieved next time.
When Bisezhai Station was at its most prosperous, homeless people and businessmen from 108 counties in 18 provinces in China came here to realize their "dream of getting rich." More than 40 pairs of trains stop here every day, loading people, washing cars and adding water. It is very lively; beautiful women and wealthy businessmen, foreign wine and coffee are scattered here and there. Its openness and prosperity are second to none in southern Yunnan. People from Kunming and Vietnam enviously call it "Little Paris". The French colonists controlled Yunnan's external transportation lifeline through the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and monopolized Yunnan's business.
Bisezhai Station is a special-class station on the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. It witnessed the Yunnan National Defense Movement. At that time, most of the teachers and students of the Southwest United Union took a boat from Hong Kong to Vietnam and transferred from here to Mengzi.
Historically, ancestors and cultural masters such as Zhu De, Cai E, Wen Yiduo, Zhu Ziqing, Feng Youlan, Shen Congwen, Liu Wendian, and Pan Guangdan all passed through this station. There are too many centuries-old stories in this century-old station. While experiencing the leisurely and slow time here, you can also feel and appreciate the century-old history of the station through the mottled walls and railway tracks.
The gauge of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway is 1 meter, which is 43.5 centimeters narrower than the standard gauge currently in use in China, so it is called the "meter-gauge railway". Due to financial and other reasons, the "Gebishi Railway" was finally built into an "inch gauge" railway with a gauge of only 0.6 meters wide. In 1915, the construction of the "Bishite Railway" officially started, and it was not completed and opened to traffic until 1936. The 177-kilometer railway took 21 years and five months to build, and the hardships are self-evident. The "Gebishi Railway" has a designed speed of 25 kilometers per hour, but the actual running speed is only about 10 kilometers, not much faster than riding a horse.
In October 1959, with the dismantling of the inch-gauge railway from Bisezhai to Mengzi, Bisezhai was no longer the hub where the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and Gebishi Railway met. This place was completely neglected, and Bisezhai became a village mainly based on agriculture again. The people who once relied on the train station for food had no choice but to go out and find other ways to make a living. Bise Village, which has been prosperous for half a century, has exited its "golden age" and is finally just a small train station. But in the memory of Yunnan people, it will never be as simple and pure as a train station. It carries the glory and dreams, prosperity and splendor of the past.
Bise Village should not be forgotten, not because "Youth" was filmed here, nor because the movie is a hit, but because it itself has a glorious and profound history that is enough to be remembered. .