Meet at Luohu Port
Text | Zhang Zhang
One day at the end of last year, I suddenly realized that I had not been to Luohu Port for a long time.
Of course, this is not a problem, go or not, Luohu Port is there and has always been there.
But I have to say that Luohu Port is already my sad place, even if my place of residence is only a few steps away, I dare not go easily.
As everyone knows, among the several ports connecting Shenzhen to Hong Kong, the Lo Wu Port is the largest and the one with the largest flow of people on the mainland. Like many tourists, I have been part of the crowd of people frequenting the Heung Kong River for many years since Hong Kong was opened to free travel. In addition to having to go for work reasons, more often it is out of personal needs: or going to an event and party, sometimes Hong Kong friends are drinking tea in Mong Kok or Kowloon Bay, a call on WeChat, I don't say a word, just go; Or just to buy, buy and buy, for a while all the clothes and food were moved back from Hong Kong. Although they are all for their own use, they are somewhat suspicious and suspected of being water guests. My move was also jokingly called by Hong Kong friends as pulling and promoting Hong Kong's consumption. Even so, it is also a two-way street, Hong Kong friend Liu Jun will come to Shenzhen to solve the problem even if he has a haircut and tooth, I dare say that he is more familiar with that area than many citizens who have lived in Shenzhen for a long time, at least far better than me. For a while, a friend and I were so keen to watch movies and buy books, so we visited almost all the upstairs bookstores in Mong Kok. One afternoon I really wanted to own the soundtrack of a certain movie, so I put on my backpack and took the subway to Luohu Port without stopping for a moment. Another time, in order to bid farewell to a friend who lives in Shatin, Hong Kong, I actually took the East Rail Line across the border to send it to University Station, watching my friend in the window of the train waving frequently and disappearing into the distance... It can be said that such a twin-city life has allowed me to realize the travel of walking away, and I have truly integrated into the one-hour life circle of Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
When I go to Hong Kong again and again, I mostly choose to go through Luohu Port or Futian Port, for no other reason, that is, convenience, from my original Nanshan residence, I can take the subway only to change one or two MTR, and I can directly connect with the Hong Kong East Rail Line. Many times, at the moment of crossing the Luohu Bridge, looking at the Shenzhen River outside the floor-to-ceiling window of the travel inspection hall, shimmering under the scorching sun, I can't help but think that this boundary river that straddles two places, visually measuring only tens of meters, the narrowest pole jump can jump, how many people in the past have been excited by various obstacles, in vain. Now we can walk easily with our feet up, and it seems that we have crossed two eras in an instant. One of the great fortunes of being a native of Shenzhen is that you can go back and forth to Hong Kong several times a year with a pass, which is a treatment that people outside Shenzhen do not have. What is more convenient is that Shenzhen residents living around the port go to Hong Kong with their feet up and do not have to endure long hours of travel and transportation. Residents of the border are even more convenient to travel to Hong Kong than to and from Shenzhen.
However, the pandemic came. The order of life of the past has been disrupted, and what was previously taken for granted no longer exists. "Seal" became a high-frequency word that kept appearing. In order to stop the raging epidemic, the closure has become logical. Except for the customs clearance of Shenzhen Bay Port, all ports in Shenzhen, including Luohu Port, have been closed. This one lasted for nearly three years.
In the past three years, it is obvious that the Shenzhen Bay Port alone cannot meet people's needs, cross-border schoolchildren have interrupted their studies, relatives in the two places have been difficult to get together, and there are rumors on the Internet that lovers from the two places are standing on the banks of the Shenzhen River and looking across the river to pay for the pain of lovesickness. At the port, news of upcoming customs clearance from time to time is unconfirmed, so bloggers have repeatedly gone to various ports in Shenzhen to investigate on the spot and posted videos online. Among them, there are also video bloggers who claim that the Luohu Port, which used to be crowded, has been sparsely deserted in front of the door, and even barren grass. This is not surprising, I remember that during college, every time I returned to campus at the end of the summer, only for more than a month, the weeds on the bare playground were unstoppable, and some corners were even more than half a person tall. The long-term closure also "connected" to the commercial activities around the port, and Luohu Commercial City was almost reduced to an empty city for a while.
I moved to Luohu neighborhood at the beginning of last year, which is close to Luohu Port, but I have never wanted to set foot in it. One twilight in winter, I went out for a walk, walking, and without paying attention, I arrived at the port.
The area around the port, adjacent to the North District of Hong Kong, has Shenzhen Station, Luohu Port, long-distance bus station fan-shaped, subway lines, a number of bus line terminus gathered here, line formation, making this a collection of Luohu transportation, a three-dimensional transportation hub center, swallowing the tide of people every day. At this moment, there is a long line of taxis parked on the construction road, some slowly starting, some parked on the side of the road, seemingly waiting for passengers with great patience. There are also passengers in pairs, dragging suitcases, crossing the zebra crossing from time to time, but their steps are not as hurried as in the past, apparently these are passengers entering and leaving Shenzhen Station. Shenzhen Railway Station was originally the largest railway station in Shenzhen, but with the rise of Shenzhen North Railway Station, its status has become secondary. At present, the three big characters of Shenzhen Station are still shining, but it seems to be more like a hospital, and in front of the waiting building is a temporary simple quarantine facility, which is obviously not easy to enter the station smoothly. Further south, lying across the railway station square, you can see the Luohu Port Travel Inspection Building on the glazed roof. It also means that the road has come to an end and comes to the southernmost point of Shenzhen.
Several men and women were playing badminton on the square, and on the edge of the square platform were sitting in pairs, some standing and looking at their mobile phones, others talking. The surrounding buildings are like spectators, looking at these leisurely people. I walked through the square and walked up the steps of the Travel Inspection Building. This familiar classical building, which has gone through vicissitudes since it was put into use, has now been closed for so long for decades, and I suddenly felt like it was wearing a huge mask, only showing its eyes and looking at me in amazement.
Bridges crisscrossing the perimeter are connecting the perimeter to form an extensive sky corridor. In the past, there were many tourists here. Luohu Commercial City not far away is still tenaciously supported, and the shining neon is somewhat lonely, as if waiting for someone who has not returned. Under the neon lights, there is an old and young family walking slowly under the neon, and after a while, they stop to take a group photo to take the bright lights behind them into the camera. Are they also "nostalgic" and reminiscing about the prosperity of the past? Walking past the "To Hong Kong" sign, one or two men and women in sportswear trotted past me. In my opinion, the departure area is like a labyrinth, and in the past, I could always go to Hong Kong with a light car, effortlessly passing through the dense flow of people and coming to the departure hall to check the verification documents, because every time I entered from Bridge 3 next to the sign. I don't know how others are, anyway, in my opinion, this is like taking a shortcut to enter the exit hall. Surrounded by convenience stores and money exchanges, Bridge 3 is also where I often make appointments for my companions to meet in Hong Kong, and in my opinion, it is the only place not to accidentally bump into the maze of ports. At this moment, there is a teenager skateboarding at the closed entrance, jumping up and down over and over again, ignoring that this was once a crowded place.
Walking down to the second floor, I sat down again on the edge of the plaza platform, which is directly opposite the Luohu Port entry. The scene before the closure could not help but emerge. Although Shenzhen has more than a dozen ports, people seem to be more accustomed to entering and exiting through the Luohu port. Every day, in the early evening and before the retreat, those who have completed their day trips in Hong Kong are bubbling out of the port of entry. One by one, like warriors returning in triumph, carrying large bags and small bags that did not match their own weight, they began to choose transportation in Luohu, a transportation hub, and embarked on the road home. At the same time, another wave of people has arrived, and that is Hong Kong residents who have been visiting Shenzhen for a day or two, perhaps lingering in the streets of Shenzhen for a day or two, and are about to return to Hong Kong. As a result, the two crowds met in the square, eye-to-eye contact, shoulder-to-shoulder touch, as if they were communicating silently, or completing some kind of heart-comprehension handover ceremony. These two crowds record the coming and going between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. This kind of scene often reaches its peak every weekend.
Sometimes I also anxiously greet friends from Hong Kong at the port of entry. When I saw friends I hadn't seen for a long time, I wanted to do my best to be a landlord, but I was wrong. I was surprised to find that one by one, like that Liu Jun, they were far more familiar with the surroundings of Luohu Port than I was. So there was an anti-customer-oriented scene. Once I saw Wu Jun and was thinking about where to take him for tea, he took me up to a certain floor of Luohu Commercial City and entered a luxuriously decorated restaurant without thinking. Seeing him greeting the restaurant manager familiarly, we realized that he was a regular customer here. Another time I met Miss Nguyen from Hong Kong, and it was noon, and I was thinking of going to a restaurant in Luohu to eat, but Miss Nguyen led me underground and into a tea restaurant called Port. She introduced that many Hong Kong people often dine here when they come to Shenzhen, and when I saw the room full of Cantonese drifting, I really suspected that I had stepped into a tea restaurant in Hong Kong.
We never said goodbye in earnest.
Since returning from the Luohu Port, I recorded the mixed state of mind of loss and expectation after the closure, and not long after, I ushered in the news that the Shenzhen Port would resume customs clearance in a phased and orderly manner. In addition to the joy, it is difficult to hide the loss, in the first batch of ports where customs clearance between Shenzhen and Hong Kong resumed, there is no name of Luohu Port. It is said that part of the project has not yet been completed, but after a delay of nearly a month, the Luohu port has finally reopened.
The Luohu port reopened on February 6, and I made a note of this special day. On this day, although my pass had expired and I could not cross the border to Hong Kong, I rushed to the Lo Wu port that morning. There is no other reason than to be "present", to witness the coming of this moment of hope day and night. In the square in front of the port, I was surrounded by a stream of people, most of whom were obviously Hong Kong residents entering the country, and at the same time, there were also mainland citizens dragging suitcases in pairs and walking quickly towards the exit port. This is a scenario that has not been seen in three years. People gathered here from all directions, as if they had made an appointment, as if to have a party, yes, a grand party, for the rendezvous and reunion after three years of separation.
I greeted the crowd of people, almost "retrograde" to the entrance hall, and saw big red lanterns hanging high, reflecting the enthusiasm and noise of this special day. The most striking thing is that on the red wall of the hall, there are also large characters written "1098 days of waiting, let the thoughts meet at this moment", as if to express the voice of the residents of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Hong Kong residents who have just entered the country are standing in front of the wall, gesturing to take photos so that this moment can be frozen in the depths of their memories. It is difficult to tell whether it is the reflection of the red walls or whether their cheeks are flushed because they cannot hide their inner joy.
Standing at the exit gate, I was mixed in the middle of a group of "red vests" holding signs, watching the waves of people coming out, I was thinking, these familiar strangers, one by one, carrying backpacks, pushing suitcases, with a look of anxiety and expectation, as if a river across the distance, walked for 1098 days. For a while, I also fell into the hallucination that I would call out the name of someone who greeted me almost at the same time in these crowds.
Zhang Xiang, currently living in Luohu District, Shenzhen, is a media person. He has written essays, novels, and poems, and published about one million words of various works, which have been published in magazines such as "Budding", "Yuhua", "Feitian", "Wen Guo", "Fujian Literature" and so on. He has published a collection of essays "Take Me Away" (Guangxi Normal University Press, 2017).
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