Text/Liu Lingzhi Sun Juan
In that era of material poverty, People's Park was almost the only place for citizens to play, they remembered, talked, laughed... In everyone's memory, whether it was a parent or a child, the stone-cast elephant slide has become the "most unforgettable" in the park.
Ms. Li, who was born in 1980, told reporters that her childhood memory of the park is that of an elephant, "strange ears, long nose, thick legs, this is a witness to the childhood of Zhengzhou people, and several generations of dolls have played here."
The huge body cast in cement, mighty ivory, long-nosed ground, entering through the door behind the elephant, climbing the narrow stone ladder, drilling out of the hole, "slipping" down from the top of the elephant's nose, non-stop and drilling into the elephant's butt, climbing the stone ladder... There are always many children crowding around the elephant slide and cheering.
"I remember the first time I went there to go to elementary school, excited and nervous, the first time I did not dare to drill into the dark entrance, and finally climbed to the top with the encouragement of adults, but did not dare to slide down." But after successfully sliding once, I tasted the sweetness. Later, as soon as you have the opportunity, you will go to the park, the first choice is to slide the elephant slide, everyone rushes to climb the slide, recall the feeling at that time: warmth! Ms. Li said that now the park has a lot of modern amusement facilities, "still like the old things, sika deer, workers and peasants statues, tea houses, half-pull pot theater ..."
Before the founding of New China, Zhengzhou did not have a park in the true sense. In order to meet the needs of citizens' leisure activities, in 1951 the municipal government decided to build a people's park between the Hugong Ancestral Hall north of Xitaikang Road and the Penggong Ancestral Hall east of Minggong Road. In August 1952, the park was completed and officially opened to tourists, and the People's Park became the earliest park in Zhengzhou, adjacent to Erqi Road and Minggong Road in the east and west, becoming a well-deserved back garden in the city center.
Tickets were not sold at the beginning of the opening of the park, and tickets were officially sold in January 1953, with a ticket price of 2 points.
After the establishment of the park, the Jinshui River was introduced into the park, and a cement arch bridge was built on the west bank of the East Lake, and there were rockeries piled up on the islands in the lake, and mao pavilions were built on the top of the mountain.
At that time, the east gate of the People's Park was a small earthen mountain, and even so, it temporarily met people's expectations of landscapes. Until January 1980, the park selected large pieces of strange-shaped bluestone from Xinmi and Gongyi, and piled up bluestone rockeries on the basis of Tushan, and to this day, the bluestone rockery is still the most attractive landscape at the east gate of the People's Park.
(The picture in the article comes from the Network)
Edit: Zhi Sen