The bulging dough is cut open and stuffed with minced meat and green peppers, and the heat is steaming. Under the morning sun, the fragrance suddenly takes shape.
"No one of us here can do without this fire. Wang Laoqiang, 57, turned the dough in the stove, and the fire reddened his face. This is the 43rd year that his family's fire shop has been in business, and it is also the 6th year (2023) that he has burned in Xiong'an New Area.
In this city of the future, 120,000 people bid farewell to their villages and fields, went into communities and communities, and embraced a new life.
The vicissitudes of the sea, the fire - this taste of the world that has been wafting in Baiyangdian for thousands of years, and now scattered in the streets and alleys of the new city, almost unanimously strive to steam the "cooking smoke" into the sky, just like the people who have lived here for generations.
"I'm afraid of being lost" and "I'm going to have a head"
"It's an order!" Zhang Lihua, who was resting on the electric car, stuffed half of the fire in his hand into his mouth, didn't bother to wipe the oil stains from the corners of his mouth, and hurriedly put on his hat and set off.
At the age of 40, he used to do small business in the village of Rongcheng County. Now that he has entered the city, he has put on a vest and become a delivery rider, "Running more than 100 kilometers a day, he can receive more than 40 orders, 4 yuan per order, and if he exceeds 600 orders a month, he can earn an extra 2 cents per order." ”
About 170 "Zhang Lihua" constitute the first batch of "stomach protection teams" in the Rongdong area of Xiong'an New Area, and also take the first step in their roots in the city. ”
"The city is bigger, the road name has changed, and some new communities don't even recognize the old drivers. Hong Guang, 52, has been driving a taxi here for more than a decade and just installed navigation on his phone in 2022.
He was afraid that the huge city would be lost, and he was afraid that the huge city would lose himself.
In just a few years, more than 2,000 shared vehicles have joined the transportation army, many of which have returned to change jobs.
This is a young Xiong'an with an average age of more than 30 years old, and it is also a Xiong'an where employment is crucial to people's livelihood.
According to the communiqué of the seventh national census of Xiong'an New Area, the permanent population of Xiong'an New Area exceeds 1.2 million, of which more than 720,000 are of working age between the ages of 15 and 59, accounting for nearly 60%. Based on the development target of 3 million people in Xiong'an New Area, the proportion of local permanent residents is 40.2%. Among the three new districts of national significance, the proportion is the highest, and the employment pressure of the local working population is the greatest.
128 units, 2,013 positions, involving more than 20 fields such as emerging service industry, manufacturing, construction, logistics, catering, property, etc., covering general work, service, administrative management, customer service and other aspects...... On September 13, 2023, a large-scale human resources job fair was held in Rongcheng County, a new district, and the blue shed on the site covered the entire sports field. On that day alone, more than 600 of the more than 3,100 applicants were hired.
Walking into a barber shop in Rongdong District, the reporter was surprised that the little brother and sister here not only know how to get a haircut, 29-year-old Qi Dong can do beauty, and 34-year-old Zhang Qili can do makeup, "There are people who get married nearby, and I often come to the door to follow the makeup." She said.
When I asked, I found out that this was a new technology they had learned. Relying on the red e-commerce business incubation base, the local government has carried out various training courses such as "online entrepreneurship training courses" and "beauticians and makeup artists", and has trained 448 trainees and helped 294 people to find employment.
Not far from the barber shop is the Nanwenying Community Party and Mass Service Center. The thick "people's sentiment ledger" here will be replaced in a few days, and a considerable part of it records the employment situation.
Gig stations provide flexible employment opportunities and explore doorstep jobs with innovative ideas. The relevant person in charge of the convenience service station of the Nanwenying Community Party and Mass Service Center said that among the more than 5,000 returnees in the community, the employment of the elderly and the difficult is the focus of their attention.
When Ma Yanmei's tailor shop opened at the Nanwenying Community Neighborhood Station, she did not forget to bring the old sewing machine at home, and the 50-year-old recalled: "When the thread passed through the needle and fell on the cloth, the empty heart was settled at once." ”
After moving back to the nearby community, Ma Yanmei, who had been a skilled tailor all her life, had no regular customers, and it was the community worker who stumbled upon her skill when she was searching for residents' information, and invited her to "go out of the mountain" again to help her find a good place and prepare sewing machines and other equipment.
In this 200-square-meter façade, a barber, a home appliance repairer and tailor Ma Yanmei, who were originally scattered in different villages and did not know each other, gathered here.
"With this shop, I can take on more than a dozen jobs a day. When I wasn't working, I helped the toy factory with some plush toy clothes. I'm not afraid of being tired, I have something to do, and my days will be rushing. As Ma Yanmei spoke, the needles of the sewing machine flew up and down, tearing out a lace.
Night view of Rongdong area Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xing Guangli
"Planting the seeds" and "jumping out of the grid"
"Are you the community that can play?"
Residents with children often come to the door to ask about this sentence, and in the eyes of the person in charge of Xiquan Community in Rongxi District, "fun" is a kind of praise for community work.
The Party and Mass Service Center is not large, almost half of the space is reserved for "play", and the walls and floors are wrapped in colorful patterns: there are different activity rooms for different age groups, and there are also shared study rooms.
"We are building a child-friendly community brand where 'Xixi' accompanies and grows up together, and parent-child activities are held almost every week. The person in charge said that they provide family education, temporary childcare, public welfare classes, cultural activities, health monitoring and other services for children in the community.
To build a model city that is "wonderful and desirable", the "one-meter height" of the "second generation" is very important. Xiong'an New Area actively explores the construction of child-friendly cities, and promotes the concept of "seeing the city, the world, and the future from a height of one meter" into the whole process and field of urban construction and development.
Let them feel the heritage of the thousand-year-old city, the beauty of the city of the future, and the goodwill of the people's city, and plant a seed of continuous struggle. The person in charge of the teaching group of Heping Primary School in Rongxi District, Xiong'an New Area, has a lot of feelings: the hundred-year plan, education-oriented, millennium plan, is also education first.
She has worked in the village primary school for many years, and has seen the crampedness of left-behind children lacking teachers and education, and when she came to the newly built Heping Primary School in February 2023, "the eyes suddenly opened up." ”
Wide green field, classrooms with bright windows, staircase reading halls, and exquisite small stages...... There are also excellent teachers from all over the country as companions, and the average age of more than 60 faculty members is only 28 years old.
A total of 831 students from grades 1 to 6 came from resettled families. She recalls that when they first entered the school, they were ignorant and timid, but now the children's paintings, handicrafts and bright smiling faces are plastered all over the school.
"In their paintings, in their eyes, there is a richer world. She said that she once assigned an essay question to the children to write about the changes in their hometown. A sixth-grade girl wrote: "In the village, it used to be dark at nine o'clock, but now it's full of traffic and stars.
One old and one young, the day and night are beautiful.
At noon, the hot braised pork shimmered with oil, and it was sold out in less than half an hour. "That's dozens of copies!" said Wang Shenglan, a 29-year-old chef, proudly wrestling his fingers with reporters.
20 kg of cabbage, 30 kg of tomatoes, 150 kg of rice, 200 flower roll steamed buns...... Compared with the past 13 years of kitchen experience in the hotel, this consumption is naturally nothing, and in the Nanwenying Community Canteen, which has only been open for half a year, the results can be described as magnificent.
Its presence has knocked on the stomachs of the elderly in the community, and it has also presented them with an almost new way of life: more than 20 dishes to choose from, seasonal specialties, face payment, discounts by age, penniless and free "A package".
A sauce roasted tilapia, a steamed bun, and a bowl of porridge, although 85-year-old Du Xiaoxian eats slowly, but with relish, "It's better than my craftsmanship, it's only 10 yuan a day, it's very cheap." ”
On May 23, 2023, residents of Nanwenying Community in Rongdong District eat at the community canteen Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhu Xudong
If the weather is good, Du Xiaoxian is willing to go to the pension station not far away.
There are two floors here, billiards, calligraphy and painting and other activity rooms, medical care rooms, psychological counseling rooms, etc., which are open to the elderly for free. A class schedule on the wall is full for a week: recitation, film and television appreciation, Baduanjin, square dance......
Sunday afternoon is a day for the old people of Hebei Bangzi Drama Club to get together. I saw that in the hall on the first floor, more than 20 uncles set up erhu, banhu, ruan, flute and even cello, everyone used chairs to surround a semi-circular "stage", more than ten aunts dressed in gorgeous cheongsams all appeared, and the rest of the people sat or stood, all of them were cheering.
"Listening to my mother-in-law's words, I regret it......" knocked on the board, all the music played in unison, an aunt raised the microphone, her voice lit up, and an excerpt from "Dou E's Injustice" won the house.
In the past, these old people lived in their respective villages, and some of them made a career in the village, but now they know each other at the post station. Liu Shuncheng, 73, the president of the drama club, said that everyone was scrambling to be the first to sing more than 20 songs in one afternoon, and "some old ladies even memorized the lyrics when cooking at home." ”
"There are quite a few clubs like ours in the post station, and there is a unified club called 'Sheng Nian'. Liu Shuncheng's chest was banging: "If I were still in the village, I would have been sitting at the door basking in the sun at my age.
In Xiong'an, such "sunset red" is not uncommon. Up to now, 41 service facilities for the elderly, such as nursing homes, elderly care centers, and pension stations, have been planned and built with high standards, continuously improving the sense of gain and happiness of the returnees.
"Keeping Time" and "Moving into the Future"
The plaque of "Xiong'an No. 1 Store" hangs in a fire shop that has been in business for more than 30 years.
New flavors are also coming inexorably. A "hot dog" shop opened on the corner of a prosperous neighborhood in Xiong'an, and some people came to the door and asked: "Why are you selling the same dough with meat?"
This is the Xiong'an New Area, the "test field" of innovation. Innovation is on the "ground", "underground" and "cloud", with 200,000 public sensors installed per square kilometer, and the level of infrastructure intelligence exceeds 90%, and hundreds of forums and papers are held every year to provide suggestions for innovation here.
The old and the new are intertwined, conflicting and even blending, and they are staged in the "cooking smoke" here every day.
On July 12, 2019, the first "5G+ smart bus" in Hebei Province was opened in Xiong'an New Area. Today, the number of bus lines has increased to 42 and the number of regular bus lines has increased to 20.
In June 2021, the first urban smart energy integration station in Xiong'an New Area was put into use. This substation "hidden" in the park really allows "the wind of Zhangbei to light up the lamp of Xiong'an", and is the first in the country to realize the unmanned charging of the whole process of "automatic parking + automatic charging", and has become a leisure check-in place for surrounding residents.
On June 20, 2021, the first fresh fruit supermarket in Xiong'an New Area opened, and now it has more than 10 branches in the district. Shandong Red Fuji, Dandong strawberries and even Thai durian and Australian sweet oranges are all available, but the "sales crown" is a low-priced egg used to attract customers, "Everyone still has no habit of buying fruit in the store." The boss said.
In 2022, the first bookstore in Xiong'an New Area opened. Nowadays, there are more than 500 people on weekdays, more than 1,000 people on weekends, 40 cups of coffee are sold every day, and among the 30,000 books on sale, there are also many readers in the new area such as "The Right Bank of the Ergun River" and "The Complete Works of Mu Xin".
On January 6, 2023, the first community health service center in Xiong'an New Area was completed and opened. There are 12 departments on the upper and lower six floors, including the traditional Chinese medicine hall, CT room, and geriatric ward. "Now we have an average of 400 visits per day. The person in charge of the Xianxi Community Health Service Center told reporters that among the health technicians in the hospital, there are 3 people with deputy senior professional titles, 25 people with intermediate professional titles, and medical school graduates from Jilin, Gansu and Hubei have joined.
At this moment, a barbecue city is in full swing in the new district. More than 200 stalls collect the fireworks that were originally scattered in the streets and alleys, and bloom in the night of Xiong'an. Lu Jun, a "post-80s" barbecue stall owner, became one of the first people to "eat crabs", renting a conspicuous place to sell signature dishes such as squid and duck intestines. ”
On the way to the future, there are always some memories that will stop in time.
"Back then, I took it to the market. "An old scale seen in the home of an elderly man who has moved back brought the reporter into the Zhangshi market, which is about to be demolished, but it is still lively, and the small open space is divided into vegetables, fruits, meat, groceries and other areas.
In one corner, Li Xinen's cooking stall is fragrant, and customers often come to pick up a handful of ginger, peppercorns or star anise. He and his wife have been crawling in the market for many years, and they can find a unique taste, "When the market is gone, I go to the vegetable market and the supermarket. ”
The great and the ordinary, the great change and the unchanging, the glorious and the dream...... Thousands of flavors in the world are gathering infinitely in Xiong'an. They are gathered together to be cooking smoke, and spread out to be the world.
Silently "watching" all this is the millennium wheel in the hall of Xiong'an Station.
Since April 1, 2017, the bronze roulette wheel has been rotating since April 1, 2017, marking the new and the old, the morning and the twilight, the ancient and the modern, and also recording the pulse of the city and the heartbeat of all beings.
Perhaps it is only the slightest turn, but it is also a proof that everyone who lives in this land is deeply present and cannot be ignored.
Source: Xinhua News Agency (Chen Nuo)