Qingdao is a peninsula city with hundreds of kilometers of mainland coastline, this coastline is winding, headlands, jagged reefs, beaches dotted, making Qingdao's coast has a beautiful coastline. Since the beginning of the last century, Qingdao has a red tile, green trees, blue sea and blue sky front sea line layout, when some Westerners walked into Qingdao, trance has a kind of into Switzerland Geneva and Lucerne visual impact, so they call Qingdao "Oriental Switzerland".
The beauty of Qingdao, in addition to the urban architectural style of the coastal line, there are also those "bays", that is, Jiaozhou Bay, Tuandao Bay, Qianwan Bay, Huiquan Bay, Taiping Bay, Fushan Bay, Maidao Bay, Shazikou Bay, Qingdao's coastline In addition to the reef group, there are several beaches with excellent sand quality, those beaches are basically in those "bays", and those coastal beaches with excellent sand quality form one natural "bathing beach" after another. Qingdao people living by the sea like to swim in the sea, and the "bathing beaches" scattered all over the coastline provide excellent swimming places for swimming enthusiasts.
Among the many beaches in Qingdao, the most distinctive is the Cangkou Beach on the shore of Jiaozhou Bay, although that location is not on the beautiful Qianhai line, but there is a beach of about 200 meters long, and there are three sea pools next to that beach, and it is precisely because of those three sea pools, so the Cangkou Beach also has an alias, called "Sea Pond", from the 60s to the 80s of the last century, Cangkou Beach is a popular swimming enthusiasts gathering place, It is the first bathing beach in Huiquan Bay after it has the largest beach in Asia.
(Courtesy of netizen "Blue Sea")
In fact, those large pools were not specially built for the Cangkou Beach, when the Japanese invaded Qingdao, they built several spinning mills in the central and northern parts of Qingdao, one of which was called Zhongyuan Spinning Factory, which was later Qingdao Guomian No. 6 Factory. The Japanese built three large reservoirs outside the western wall of the Zhongyuan Spinning Mill in order to use seawater to cool the small power generation equipment in the factory. The electricity consumption of the spinning mill is very large, and considering that the mains power is both unstable and frequently blackouted, the Japanese specially equipped the Zhongyuan Spinning Factory with small power generation equipment.
My father-in-law was an electrical engineer trained in New China, and he was responsible for designing the small power generation equipment of several cotton textile factories in Qingdao City, and the new small power generation equipment eliminated the small power generation equipment left by the Japanese before, including the Zhongyuan Yarn Factory.
The sea ponds built by the Japanese are all concrete structures, separated by two concrete dams into three square sea ponds of different sizes in the south, middle and north, but they are all connected to each other, and the two cement dams later became the jumping platform for swimmers. On the west side of these three pools is a "small sea pond", when the tide is high, the sea water first enters the small sea pool, and then pours into the sea pool from a large sluice gate.
The three sea ponds built by the Japanese are very reasonable in design, when the sea water enters the southernmost sea pool, then flows to the middle of the sea pool, and finally flows into the north end of the sea pool, the whole sea water transport process plays a role in sedimentation, but also a sea water purification process, the purified sea water through the north end of the sea pond in the northeast corner of the pumping pipe to the Zhongyuan spinning mill.
Whenever the sea rises at high tide, there is a special person to open the big sluice, the sea water will fill the three sea pools, and when the tide is low, then close the big sluice to prevent the sea water in the pool from leaking out at low tide, so the sea water in the three sea pools is always full, which provides conditions for the full use of the later Cangkou beach.
Later, because it was soaked in seawater for many years, the big sluice gate was so rusty that it was impossible to open the gate and close the gate, so it was always in a state of closing. Whenever the tide is full, the three sea pools are filled with seawater, and when the tide recedes, because the large sluice gate is not closed very tightly, the water in the pool will leak out through the gap, so that the water level in the pool will be reduced a lot after the tide falls, so there are relatively few people bathing in the pool at low tide.
When the Japanese occupied this place, swimming was not allowed in the few large pools, and they were afraid that someone would damage the equipment of the Zhongyuan Spinning Factory, so they built a turret near the pumping pipe in the northeast corner of the northernmost sea pond.
After the surrender of the Japanese devils, especially after the liberation of Qingdao, the industry in the Cangkou area developed rapidly, and the semi-industrialized, semi-agricultural, and densely populated large and small merchants in Cangkou became the largest industrial area in Qingdao, and many factories sprung up in the Cangkou area, and the population in the Cangkou area also gathered more and more, and eventually became the largest population gathering place in Qingdao City.
With so many sandy beaches, Qingdao people like to swim is also reasonable, Cangkou people are no exception, Qingdao people call swimming "bathing", if anyone says to swim, authentic Qingdao people will feel unaccustomed after listening. In the summer of the 60s, 70s and 80s of the last century, there was an endless stream of people who went to Cangkou Beach every day to take a bath, because regardless of whether the tide was high or low, the sea water in those few sea pools was full, and you could go there at any time to take a bath, and other bathing beaches in Qingdao did not have this advantage.
As an old Cangkou person, I also learned to swim at the Cangkou Beach, of course, I learned it on the beach side, because people who can't swim don't dare to go down to the pool to swim, and even sometimes don't dare to stand on the edge of the pool, some naughty boys will coldly push you into the pool, because he doesn't know that you can't swim, see you wearing a pair of swimming trunks, it will be mischievous to push you down the water, I have been pushed down the water several times, although I drank several mouthfuls of salty seawater when I fell into the water, But in the end, they were all dragged up.
The location of Cangkou Beach is very remote, unlike other beaches that are next to the road. The distance from Cangkou Street to the beach is about three miles away, along the slope road called "Canghai Road" on the north side of Sansheng Building, down the slope and then cross a train track, and on the left is the Cangkou Workers' Club. Continue further across two train lanes, all the way to the west of the sea, to the left is the Qingdao Phosphate Fertilizer Factory. Walk west along the courtyard wall of qingdao phosphate fertilizer factory, and turn around the wall in half a circle to reach the beach and the sea pond. It was a dirt road that was neither wide nor clean, and when walking, it was often choked to tears by the smoke wafting from the phosphate fertilizer factory, because the smoke from the unburned ore would blow into the sea with the wind, often causing passers-by to cough and speed up their pace.
There was a steady stream of people coming and going on the road every day, mostly on foot, and occasionally some cyclists. The living conditions in that era were poor, and the children did not have their own bicycles, but walked to the beach on foot, and the children at that time were skinny and not too tired to walk.
The swimming season in Qingdao is basically the time when primary and secondary schools are on vacation, so the number of primary and secondary school students in the Cangkou Beach is the largest. Of course, the adults who go to the beach to take a bath are also huge, the factories at that time are three shifts, the workers on the morning shift can go to the sea bath; the workers on the middle shift go to the sea bath before going to work; the workers on the night shift sleep enough after work, and can go to the sea bath at any time, because the Cangkou beach has those three sea pools, which is the "hardware" that all other beaches in Qingdao do not have. Because of the sea pool, those who bathe in the sea can go to the beach at any time, even if it is not a Sunday, the beach is full of traffic as usual.
Among those who go to the beach to take a bath, we often see someone carrying a fully inflated car inner tube on their shoulder, and we call that the safety ring, that is, the lifebuoy. The car inner tube as a safety circle is the Cangkou beach up, that is some abandoned car inner tube, after the full buoyancy is very large, the large insurance circle can carry several people, the smaller one can also carry two people.
When the Cangkou Beach was not yet established, many people went there to take a bath, because there was a small beach, and there were several sea pools on the edge of the beach, forming a natural beach. At that time, the people who went there to take a bath were basically men, and women generally did not patronize there, and the men who bathed there sometimes simply flew bare-buttocks, because it was a man's world.
Because it is not yet an official bathing beach, there is no shark net in that area of water, which is dangerous. But fortunately, the water in that area is not very deep, and the sharks do not go around that area, so I have never heard of anyone being injured by sharks in that area of water.
In 1968, Cangkou Beach was officially established and was named the "Eighth Bathing Beach". Although there is already a regular ranking, people still call this beach "Cangkou Beach", or simply called "Sea Pond", because people go there to bathe in the sea basically go to those sea pools, the sea pool is the "protagonist" of the Cangkou Beach, and the beach has become a "supporting role".
After the Cangkou Beach was officially built, the shark net was also placed, and the people who came to bathe in the summer were not only bare-chested men, but also women who entered the beach, and every day there were young women and female students wearing bright swimwear, and occasionally there were aunts and aunts to join in the fun. When the tide is full, the people bathing in the sea and the pool are full, like dumplings. When the tide falls, there is no one in the sea, but the people in the few pools are still full.
The east wall of the three sea ponds all have two narrow "steps" of one high and one short, which are two protective slope walls of the high wall, the lower one is the same height as the cement dam in the middle of the pool, and the other is a section higher, and these two steps and the two dams are the jumping platforms of diving enthusiasts.
However, bathing in the sea pool sometimes pays a price, because the concrete wall that has been soaked in the sea water for many years is covered with sea oyster skins, and people who bathe in the sea will inevitably "hang up the color", and the sea oyster skin attached to the wall will scratch the skin, scratch the belly, and scratch the legs and feet. But people who bathe in the sea generally don't care much about these, even if the skin is cut by the skin of the sea oysters, the wound will not be infected after being soaked in seawater, and it will heal quickly.
The depth of the three pools is also different, and the one on the south side is relatively shallow, because it is the first sedimentation pool, and there is more silt in it. The pool in the middle is a little deeper because there is a lot less silt. The north side of the pool is the deepest, because the silt that enters the pool is very little, the purified sea water is relatively clear, and compared to the two pools in the south, the water is also deeper, people are basically bathing in the north end of the sea pool, many people like to jump on the cement dam "jumping platform" on the fierce diving. Those who did not dare to dive either went down the iron ladder or slipped out of the low dam on the west side and swam in the water.
In 2010, the miscellaneous soil was almost buried at the top of the turret (courtesy of Yang Yikuan, a lover of literature and history)
At the north end of the sea pond jumping platform location has a former "gun tower", that is, the Japanese guarded the sea pond tower, that gun tower has become the diving enthusiast's favorite jumping platform, although climbing to the top of the turret is very difficult, but climbing to show the high platform diving people have to line up. However, ordinary people still dare not go to the high platform of the turret to dive, because the depth of the water in the sea pond is only about three meters, and people with low diving skills will plunge into the mud at the bottom of the pool and will be injured. There are also people because the diving posture is not right, the belly to "fall" red, I have seen several times some people diving posture is not right jump down fell hard enough, the pain wow wow scream.
At high tide, the Cangkou Beach is at its most lively, because the water inlet next to the pool and the beach become a vast ocean. The beach is full of people, and the people in the sea pool are also full. The most lively is the several "jumping platforms" in the sea pond, which are basically full of people, and the divers are happy to climb up and jump down, jump down and down after diving for a while, climb up after surfacing, and plunge into the water again for a while, what kind of posture, it has become a stage for diving performances.
On the west side of the small sea pond is a small road, opposite is a row of locker rooms, that is, when the Cangkou Beach was first built, the Cangkou District Government, the local garrison, the sixth factory of national cotton, the phosphate fertilizer factory, the rubber factory and other units built nine simple locker rooms between the three sea ponds and the beach, there are some wooden houses lined up in a row, and the men's and women's washing rooms are simply separated by wooden boards, because it is an open-air washing room, and the sound of talking can be heard next door. Those who enter the locker room must hold a changing card issued by the unit, but fortunately, there are two locker rooms for a man and a woman that are open to the public, and they can pay money at any time, and they can also buy an annual pass, and the price is not expensive.
The beach on the edge of the locker room is the real sense of the beach, there is a beach of about 200 meters long, the quality of the beach at the north end is still reasonable, the position near the south of the steel is worse, there are many broken stones on the beach, foot pain, and there are reefs, easy to scratch people, so people generally do not go to that side, just in the north end of the beach location of the beach location to take a bath.
Even the quality of the beach at the northern end is not much better, and the tide recedes not far from the surface of the sea mixed with small rocky reefs, and the sea cannot continue to swim in it halfway down, because when the foot falls to the ground, it will be stoned on the foot, and sometimes the foot will be scratched.
After the 1990s, changing warrants at Cangkou beaches were rare
At that time, in qingdao's various swimming competitions, Cangkou people were absolutely dominant, thanks to the sea pool of Cangkou Beach, those three sea pools trained many excellent swimmers and divers, before the cangkou swimming pool was built, the sea pool has been the swimming training ground of the Cangkou District Sports School.
When I was in middle school, I had a physical education class that I went to the Cangkou Beach, and the students who could swim usually went to the sea pool to swim or dive, and the water quality was worse than learning to goug in the shallow water of the beach. There are also a few students in our class who can't swim, and they are usually only children or small habitual children in the family, they can't swim, and they don't dare to go into the water, so they have to sit on the beach on the shore to take care of their clothes for everyone. We spent an afternoon in the beach that day, and a few of our classmates who were not very good at water also learned to do douging.
At that time, students generally wore small shorts in the summer, some wore uniform shorts, some wore elastic band shorts, and then athletic shorts. Usually we wear the swimming trunks in the shorts at home, which is a kind of swimming trunks with three cable ties in the right side opening, and after the bath climbs ashore, you can put the shorts on directly, and then untie the few cables and pull out the wet swimming trunks inside. There are too many people in the locker room, there are few faucets, there are queues to wait for the flush, and the children are reluctant to spend money to flush, it is better to go home and a basin of water can solve the problem.
At that time, we boys usually put their swimming trunks on the head on the way home from the sea bath, because the swimming trunks are opened on the side, and the complete pant legs are put on the head, and the trouser legs with cable ties on the side of the opening are pulled on the back of the head, so that they can cover the direct sunlight, because the skin soaked in seawater is the least sun-resistant. Soaked in the sea water for half a day, after landing on the body are full of salt slag, a summer down almost every day in the sea water soaking, boys are sunburned like small black loach, by the beginning of the autumn school, tanned skin can not change back.
Later, the primary and secondary industries have no longer adapted to the main theme of Qingdao's development, many people go to the south and east of Qingdao, especially the pollution of the industry in the Cangkou area makes the water quality in the sea pond worse and worse, often there are glass fibers attached to the skin of people who bathe in the sea, so there are fewer and fewer people to take a bath in the Cangkou beach, with the rapid development of Qingdao traffic, many people prefer to take a car to the first beach to take a bath.
In 2004, on the left side of the wall was the sea pond of that year, and on the right was the locker room. (Courtesy of netizen "Blue Sea")
In the early 1990s, Qingdao built the Jiaozhou Bay Expressway, and the beaches along the coast of Qingdao's main island were filled in, the beach at Cangkou Beach was covered, the sea water was blocked, and several sea pools dried up. The once lively Cangkou Beach is now in ruins, and there are no signs of the past.
Lao Cangkou has thus degenerated, the prosperity is no longer there, and it has become the fringe area of Qingdao's urban area, and the glory of the past seems to have become an eternal past. However, the short-term recession of Cangkou has stopped, with the development of Qingdao Ring Bay economy, with the rise of jiaozhou Bay cross-sea bridge, with the completion of Qingdao North Railway Station, with the intersection of several lines of Qingdao Metro, with the completion of Qingdao Transportation and Business District, Cangkou this hot land is restoring the vitality of youth, hitting tomorrow's glory, and moving in the direction of developed areas in Qingdao.
(Courtesy of netizen "Canghai Ren")
However, the Cangkou beach and the sea pool can only be the eternal memory in the hearts of our Cangkou people.
Author Hu Baoxing
He is a member of Shandong Essay Literature Association, Qingdao Writers Association, Director of Qingdao Contemporary Literary Creation Research Association, Vice President of Entrepreneur Guo college of Qingdao Sinology Society, Vice President of Qingdao Branch of Huaxia Poetry, Calligraphy and Painting Art Research Institute, and Deputy Director of Qingdao Base of Huaxia Yanxiang International Cultural Exchange Center