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Our family visits in the years of our youth
Author: Wu Shaowen Wu Anjia
In recent years, during the "Spring Festival", radio stations, newspapers and other media have always reported on the difficulties and difficulties of migrant workers returning to their hometowns to visit their relatives and buy tickets. It is natural to recall our journey to visit the family of the young generation.
On July 24, 1969, in response to the call of the state to "go up to the mountains and go to the countryside", we bid farewell to our hometown of Shantou and went to work in the 1st Division and 4th Regiment of the Production and Construction Corps of the Guangzhou Military Region in Qionghai County, Hainan Island, where we lived for a long or short period of time. According to national regulations, after one year of work, upon individual application and approval by the unit, they may return home to visit relatives. Therefore, we have traveled between Shantou and Hainan through different routes and different means of transportation many times. I have a deep feeling for the twists and turns of the journey. In short, it is the excitement along the way, the hardships along the way.
In that era, the main means of transportation we took were Jiefang brand, Dongfeng brand passenger car, inland river motor boat (electric ship), marine passenger ship, cargo ship, and only imported buses and passenger planes in the later period. There are no highways, mostly asphalt roads, and many are still sandy roads, dusty on sunny days, and muddy splashes on rainy days. At that time, Shantou did not have a train, let alone any train or high-speed rail. There is no online pre-booked tickets. Embark on the journey, when you can buy a car ticket, when to leave the island, when to get home, the heart is at a loss, all by luck.
When we returned to Shantou from Hainan, there were roughly the following routes:
(1) Road transport lines. From the farm to Haikou, one route is: take the Shuttle Bus from Qinshiling (the station of the field) - Jiaji (one in the morning and one in the afternoon), the journey is 12 kilometers, the fare is 0.30 yuan; then take the shuttle bus of the Eastern Highway Jiaji - Haikou, passing through Qionghai County Road, Ding'an County Huangzhu, Penglai, Qiongshan County Sanmenpo, Hongqi, Yunlong, Lingshan, Fucheng and other places, the whole journey is 116 kilometers, the fare is 2.90 yuan. Another route is: take the East Auxiliary Highway; take the shuttle bus from Lingkou to Haikou in Ding'an County, passing through Longmen, Leiming, Dingcheng, Xiangou in Qiongshan County, Jiuzhou, Lingjiao, Yunlong, Lingshan, Fucheng and other places in Ding'an County, with a total distance of 109 kilometers and a fare of 2.73 yuan. Most of the Zhiqing on the Four-Square Slope take this route. If there are depot trucks to Carry Supplies to Haikou, you can take a "hitchhiker" and sit or stand in a Jiefang brand open-top truck to Haikou. Convenient, but you must endure the pain of wind, sun, and rain. After arriving in Haikou, transfer passenger cars day by day; Haikou- Zhanjiang-Guangzhou-Shantou.
From Qin Shiling, Qionghai County, take a shuttle bus back to Shantou via Jiaji, Haikou, Zhanjiang and Guangzhou, a total distance of 1290 kilometers. Restricted by many factors such as transportation capacity, road conditions, and mode of operation at that time, if there is no fog, typhoon, accidents, etc., the smoothest trip will be 4 days and 3 nights (one night in Haikou, Zhanjiang, and Guangzhou). In the event of any of these surprises, tickets, accommodation and itinerary will be greatly affected. In January 1988, I was driving through Jiujiang Ferry In Foshan City, and due to traffic jams, I stayed there for 8 hours, the passengers did not enter the water, the children were hungry and thirsty and crying, and there were some vendors who took advantage of the opportunity to sell eggs, steamed buns and buns at high prices on the side of the road.
The buses operating at that time had neither air conditioning nor sanitary facilities. In summer, the carriage is extremely hot, but in the winter, it is extremely cold; if you want to go to the toilet, it is extremely inconvenient; there is luggage piled up under the aisles and seats, and it is difficult to stretch your hands and feet; the car is aging and the road conditions are poor. The current expressway Zhanjiang-Guangzhou 448 kilometers, Guangzhou-Shantou 442 kilometers, the car travel only takes 5 hours, and at that time Zhanjiang - Guangzhou 480 kilometers, Guangzhou - Shantou 481 kilometers, the driving time to more than 12 hours. The bus travels all the way, the bumps along the way, the journey is difficult and arduous.
(2) Water and land intermodal transport line; purchase water and land combined transport tickets from Haikou to Guangzhou, take a ferry across the Qiongzhou Strait on the first day, arrive in Zhanjiang in a Hai'an passenger car, sign the Zhanjiang-Jiangmen passenger ticket and the Jiangmen-Guangzhou inland river ferry ticket, stay one night; leave Zhanjiang by car the next morning, arrive at Jiangmen at 5:30 p.m., board the passenger ship "Dawn" at 8:30 p.m., leave the ship at 8:30 a.m., arrive at Guangzhou Dashatou Wharf at 7:00 a.m. the next morning, transfer the passenger car to the provincial bus station and return to Shantou after disembarking.
The "Red Star Wheel", which participates in the operation of Jiangmen-Guangzhou, has its own power unit, which is faster than the "Dawn Wheel" but the noise is loud, and it starts half an hour late, but arrives in Guangzhou first. The "Dawn Wheel" itself has no power unit, is pulled by a tugboat, slower than the "Red Star Wheel", but quiet and stable. The width of each passenger shop of the passenger ship is about 90 cm, and the wooden board with a height of about 20 cm in the adjacent bunk is easy to reach the adjacent passengers, which is embarrassing.
Chenghai Zhiqing Wang Haichao retired in May 1975 and returned to Chengcheng, taking the water and land intermodal transport route, of which: Haikou - Zhanjiang - Jiangmen - Guangzhou water and land combined transport fare of 18.21 yuan; Guangzhou - Shantou 481 km fare of 12.03 yuan, Shantou - Chenghai 17 km fare of 0.43 yuan, the farm issued to him for retirement travel fees are: 5 days on the way to the meal allowance of 3.50 yuan, 3 days of accommodation allowance of 1.20 yuan, car and boat luggage fee of 38.00 yuan, 3 days of accommodation fee of 1.80 yuan, a total of 44.50 yuan. (Wang's actual expenses are: 30.67 yuan for car and ferry tickets, 15.01 yuan for luggage consignment, 2.60 yuan for accommodation, a total of 48.28 yuan, and catering expenses are not counted). To and from Shanzhou-Qiongdong by road or water-land transport line, you must take a ferry to cross the Qiongzhou Strait.
The ferries that have been put into operation are "Yuemin Ferry", "Xinhai Ferry" and "Qiongzhou No. 1" (double-winged flying boats), which take 2 hours, 1 hour and 40 minutes and 45 minutes to cross the voyage respectively. In the event of thick fog and typhoon weather, the ferry is suspended, and a large number of passengers are stranded on both sides of the strait, immediately facing the dilemma of food, accommodation, and retreat. Occasionally unexpected situations occurred during the journey, on June 28, 1985, I took the "Qiongzhou No. 1" speedboat across the strait, but unexpectedly an engine of the speedboat failed in the middle of the trip, causing the hull to shake and bump, and many passengers were seasick and vomited. I also broke out in a cold sweat and almost vomited, but fortunately the boat docked shortly after.
On July 24, 1969, 1,300 of our Zhiqing left Shantou on the ocean-going passenger ship "Jianhua" and rushed to Hainan to participate in the construction of the Corps (Agricultural Reclamation). The total length of Shantou-Haikou is 482 nautical miles (893 kilometers), and the fifth-class fare is 15.10 yuan. In that year, shantou and Haikou did not have deep-water docks, so we took barges in batches and climbed the "soft ladder" to board the "Jianhua" ship; when we arrived at Haikou Xiuying Port, we also relied on the "soft ladder" to get down to the barge, which was transported to the shore by the barge.
Since then, according to the needs of Zhiqing's work in the mountains and the countryside, the Guangzhou Shipping Bureau has opened a direct passenger route from Shantou to Haikou. The route lasted for more than 20 years (it was opened in January 1992). This is the most convenient and our favorite direct route to choose. However, it is also common to find a ticket, especially around New Year's Day to the Spring Festival.
Several Hongqi cargo ships and more than a dozen Red Guardian passenger ships are involved in the operation of the route. After 1980, the Red Guard ship changed its name to flowers such as peonies, roses, daffodils, begonias, golden lotuses, and pearl plums. The passenger ship has a relatively complete service facility, each room has 4-8 guest shops (divided by class), and the restaurant serves 3 meals a day. Freighter conditions are poor, rent a roll of cover spread out on the bottom deck of the freighter, it is the passenger shop, the freighter provides 2 meals a day, the price of each meal is 0.30 yuan, the quality of the food is good, most of the sea bowl of rice, covered with greens, meat (or fish); you can also choose soup noodles. Direct boats usually sail for 32-36 hours to reach the port of destination.
On July 1, 1979, the Guangzhou Shipping Bureau resumed the Shantou-Guangzhou marine passenger route, which covered a total distance of 293 nautical miles (543 kilometers) and a sailing time of about 24 hours. Together with the original Haikou-Guangzhou route, the total distance is 324 nautical miles (600 kilometers), and the sailing time is about 30 hours. These two routes can form a shantou-Guangzhou-Haikou ocean intermodal transport line. The intermodal line is 135 nautical miles (250 km) longer than the direct line, but it is still the route we like to choose.
Marine transport, strait ferries are most avoided in dense fog, especially typhoon weather. In the event of a typhoon, ferries and passenger ships were suspended, and every day in anxiety, they inquired about sailing news, hoping that the weather would improve and set sail as soon as possible. Waiting, sometimes 1-2 days, sometimes 3-5 days, anxious heart, shaped in the look. The sea is windless and three-foot waves, and when you encounter a slightly larger wind and wave, and when you meet the sailing conditions, it is uncomfortable. The ship moves forward with the waves, the hull rises and falls, tossing people to the side of the organs, blue face, cold sweat, some passengers vomit due to seasickness, spit out bitter water after vomiting food, bad smell in the cabin, dirty sewage with the shaking of the hull on the deck flow ... By the time the ship arrived at the port of destination, it was exhausted, her face was haggard, and within a few days it was still spinning and stumbling.
(4) Air transport line; Shantou Waisha Military Airport was built in 1954 and implemented in 1974 for military-civilian sharing. On April 15 of that year, the State Civil Aviation Administration officially opened the Guangzhou-Shantou air line, a total of 368 kilometers, and the initial fare was 25.00 yuan, which was later raised to 65 yuan. In 1987, regular flights or charter tourism routes such as Haikou-Guangzhou and Haikou-Shantou were opened. After 1989, the fare was raised many times, and in the early days, it was not really "civil aviation", and cadres above the "department level" were restricted to purchasing tickets with certificates issued by the unit. Cadres who are later demoted to "section level" can also take the bus. With the in-depth development of reform and opening up and the issuance of resident permits, it has gradually become "civil aviation" in the true sense.
Although the journey to visit relatives is arduous, it also experiences or witnesses the social changes along the way, adding some insight and fun. Once the bus stopped at Yangjiang Station to refuel, a blind man with a short stature in front of the station was peddling fried peanuts, and his hands and feet were numbly weighing, collecting money, and finding change, and there was no mistake, which was surprising, and others were amazed. A good tourist deliberately teased him, saying that he was short of two pounds, and also gave him a cigarette box paper to charge him with money, which made him angry. Someone saw the situation and persuaded not to be amused, so he boarded the car and left.
Another time, because the driver only cared about the road, too long did not stop and rest, some passengers could not hold back the urine, and called the driver to stop. It was drizzling that day, and it was in a wilderness section again, unobstructed. The men were fine, leaving the roadside a little, turning their backs on the line, the ladies were embarrassed, "the road to the sky, men and women on both sides" the driver shouted; they had to hold up the umbrella and step on the muddy water, go to the far side and use the umbrella to surround a barrier, very embarrassed and helpless.
Zhiqing Wu Anjia returned to Shantou to visit his relatives before the Spring Festival in 1973, and on the way to Guangzhou it was already evening, and after eating at about 8 o'clock, Guangzhou Zhiqing Huang Yiping stepped on a bicycle to send him to the provincial bus terminal to buy a ticket to return to Shantou. At night, the station was crowded, the queue to buy tickets could not see the head, until more than 1 o'clock in the second half of the night, it was difficult to buy an overtime ticket; 5:30 a.m. to distribute the car. Although there was a queue in the middle of the night, the joy of returning to the heart after buying the ticket was self-evident.
Who knows the joy of extreme sadness, in the middle of the road to meet the street aunt to cooperate with the traffic police to check the bicycle carrying people (at that time it was a violation), they want to rush the card to go, who knows the next intersection there are big mothers in the net, even people take the car to the police station, first use the broom to brush the paste in the barrel to the seat, paste the newspaper with two big characters written "violation", check the bicycle card, and then concentrate all the violators, start class at 2 o'clock; from the train, car, bicycle traffic rules from beginning to end all read before releasing people, back to Guangzhou Zhiqing's home is 4 o'clock in the second half of the night, After taking a nap, he immediately set off for the station.
When it was time to board the car, it was dumbfounded; it was a very dilapidated Liberation brand truck, the roof iron frame was covered with many patches, covered with large and small holes in the canvas, many of the wooden planks in the carriage were incomplete, and wearing slippers would accidentally fall along the gap. At that time, most of the 324 National Highway of Guangshan Highway was a sandy road, and the dust rolled upside down when the truck started, and the two cars met like a sandstorm. When you are sleepy, you hold your chin up and see the sandy pavement of the ground from the gap, which is even more dizzying....Even so, when you arrive at the town of Kuitan in Huilai County, when you get off the bus for lunch, all you hear is Chaoshan dialect, looking at the faces of your peers who are completely different and washed by the sand, laughing like a mud monkey with teeth, the excitement of arriving home; everyone laughed happily. Due to the slow speed of the truck, it was more than 11 o'clock at night when it reached the Shantou Building in the downtown area, and the whole drive took 16 hours. The relatives who picked up the car have been waiting here for hours.
In those years of "grasping the program and governing the country," the departments concerned strictly inspected smuggling and reselling tightly sought materials. There have been several cases of rural youth being seized carrying fertilizer in their luggage. Once in Guangzhou along the Jiangxi Road shipping dock waiting to board the ship to return to Shantou, two wearing red armbands of the "gongjie" walking accidentally by our luggage trip to the feet, feel very heavy, suddenly suspicious, politely asked what is contained in it; can you open it to see? We opened our luggage calmly, and inside it were all home-grown pepper and sugar bought from the villagers in Hainan, and they looked at it and left with relief.
In July and August 1972, I returned to Shantou for the second time to visit my relatives, and on the way back, due to the large number of non-staple foods carried by Zhiqing's parents, 3 Zhiqing checked in 4 pieces of luggage to Haikou, and the luggage of my companions was successfully collected, but my 2 pieces could not be found, saying that they had not yet arrived. I asked them to go back to the farm first, and I stayed to check twice a day and said that it had not arrived. On the third day, it was a teacher who was responsible for the collection business, and at the beginning I couldn't find it, I felt strange, and at the same time, why did the checked baggage not arrive for a few days? After listening to the teacher, after repeated searching, he finally found the 2 pieces of luggage in another pile, and arrived at the same time. Because of the irresponsibility of the young people, I was stranded in Haikou for 2 days and 2 nights!
In February 1977, the fifth visit to relatives, in Haikou Xingang wharf by ferry to Hai'an, after lunch left the car for a while, the carriage of 4 men and 1 woman is happily playing cards, 2 men and women play cards, originally thought they were traveling friends pastime, suddenly, the woman cried, pleaded; I lost everything, only the watch, can not take away. The 2 men who helped her play the card immediately turned their faces, fiercely revealed, reached out and grabbed their hands to praise the long and left, leaving the woman crying. The passengers understood that several men were accomplices, who specially used the gap time before driving to get on the bus to set up a bureau to lure fraudulent passengers, but some people were deceived.
Throughout the journey, the Corps (Farming) Pass is crucial and its role is extraordinary. With it, you can buy a car ticket and find a hotel to arrange accommodation. Because he went to the mountains and went to the countryside, his household registration also moved to Hainan and became a "foreigner". When you return home, you can declare temporary residence with your pass to enjoy the fuel, pork, peanut oil, sugar, etc. of the holiday ration. After each treatment, including car tickets and arranged for accommodation, the handling department will mark and stamp the pass. The treasured Corps (Agricultural Reclamation) Pass still clearly retains these marks.
Buying a car ticket during the journey and finding a hotel accommodation are all top priorities and troublesome things.
In May 1971, I returned to Shantou for the first time to visit my family. May 11 at 7 p.m. via Guangzhou, to find hotel accommodation must go through the provincial bus station next to the general introduction of the hotel unified arrangement, the nearby "red cotton" and other hotels have been full, write a note to introduce me to a branch office near the South Building to contact; there is also full; and I want to go to the Haizhu Bridge South "Haizhu Hotel" contact, there is also full, but finally arranged for me a loose shop, the so-called "loose shop" is to be after 10:30 at night, in the hotel corridor to arrange a folding iron bed, The next day, I woke up at dawn and put away the bed. That night, in the case of unfamiliar life, after several rounds of introductions, it took most of the night to settle down, which was particularly troublesome and very helpless. Fortunately, I had bought a 5:30 a.m. Guangzhou-Shantou bus ticket the next day, so when I stayed at the hotel that night, I was actually just lying on the iron bed and taking a nap, and I couldn't sleep at all.
On the return trip back to Hainan via Guangzhou, it was already midnight, only a few hours away from the next day's ride time, the provincial bus station annex hotel was full, because there were several fieldmates accompanying, so we sat around the "red cotton" hotel, urging knee chatting until dawn to go to the car.
On February 4, 1977, he returned to Shantou to visit his relatives, and when he arrived in Haikou, the tickets for the Shantou-Qiong direct ferry on the 6th had been sold out, and the direct ship for the next voyage had to wait until February 9. This would require a 5-day stay in Haikou. I had to take the Haikou-Guangzhou water and land combined transport on the 6th, and arrived in Guangzhou on the morning of the 8th. This year's Spring Festival is February 18, and there are still 10 days to go before the Spring Festival. The tickets and ferry tickets were sold out, and they were anxious to contact each other, and finally bought the "Hongwei NO. 8" ferry ticket from Guangzhou to Shantou on February 12 with the help of friends, and arrived in Shantou on the evening of February 13. The trip lasted 10 days, and it was really "fast but not reached".
On the way to visit relatives, there was also a thrilling scene of overturning: on June 28, 1985, taking a direct 44-seat luxury bus from Qiong to Shantou, after dinner in Zhanjiang that day, the bus had just left Zhanjiang City, in order to avoid a small car that had been unreasonably blocked twice and deliberately did not allow the bus to overtake, overturned on the depression about 4 meters deep on the left side of the highway, and the driver of the car was afraid to abandon the car and flee, fortunately the overturn did not cause the death and serious injury of the passengers. Local villagers said that last year there was also a car accident here, and the bus overturned into the pond on the right, killing 3 people.
On the round-trip trip to visit relatives, each of us had to carry a few pieces of luggage that were not light, bringing some local specialties of Hainan such as coconuts, shredded coconuts, pepper, and sugar; on the way back, we carried food such as shacha sauce entrusted by the parents of Zhiqing, took them to the bus, transferred the bus, bought tickets, and found hotels.
On July 19, 1986, I took the Haikou-Guangzhou passenger plane for the first time, took off from Haikou Airport at 19:25 that night, and landed at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport at 20:20, and actually flew in the air for 45 minutes. Subsequently, at 21:00, he took a bus back to Shantou, and although he was delayed for 4 hours due to traffic jams on the way, he arrived home at 13:00 the next afternoon. In March 1992, the Shantou-Haikou passenger plane took off at 16:30 p.m. at Shantou Waisha Airport, landed at Haikou Airport at 18:00, and returned to the unit that night. It's fast and comfortable. Of course, the fare is already expensive at this time.
In the 1980s, the state implemented the policy of "reform and opening up, relaxing and invigorating", and the transportation industry broke the system of monopoly operation by the whole people and collectively owned enterprises, and a new situation of state-owned, collective, and individual work together appeared. As a result, a considerable number of new luxury buses have been added, which has greatly enhanced the transportation capacity; promoted the change of transportation mode and the improvement of service quality, and the emergence of day and night direct shuttle buses from Haikou to Guangzhou, Guangzhou to Shantou and Haikou to Shantou, gradually forming a sea, land and air transportation network. With the emergence and popularization of highways, trains, trains and high-speed railways, our travel routes are becoming more and more diversified, smooth and comfortable. In the past, the journey from Hainan to Shantou normally took 4-6 days, more than 8-10 days, and now it only takes 2-3 days, and the fastest only takes a few hours.
This kind of change truly reflects the changes and development of the mainland's transportation industry, and witnesses the process of the mainland's reform, opening up, prosperity and prosperity; this change is the result of reform and opening up, and the display of the progress of the times!
attach:
1. Wu Shaowen's preserved corps pass (there are labels and stamps such as "a regiment that has been stayed", "Shan-Qiong ferry ticket has been purchased", "fuel payment", "oil five two", "sugar, tobacco and liquor company √ in Shantou City, Guangdong Province" and so on)
2. "Jianhua" ferry ticket on July 24, 1969
3. Huang Zhuang's temporary pass for the farm (the certificate is a transitional pass hand-printed with wax paper after the corps was converted to agricultural reclamation)
4. Wang Haichao's water and land intermodal transport vehicle tickets, retirement certificates, luggage checked storage fees, accommodation fee documents, etc. saved by Wang Haichao
Source: Corps comrades