The New Year's resolution of the "Railway Brothers"

Urumqi, 17 Jan (Xinhua) -- "I don't know if we can be reunited this year's New Year? Zhang Xiayang, 50, sent a message in the crowd at home. Because of their special work, the four brothers are separated from each other for thousands of miles or even tens of thousands of miles, and they have not been together for seven or eight years. "Having a reunion year" became their common wish.

Zhang Xiayang's family is in Hami City, Xinjiang, and he is a railway driver and a "second generation of iron". In the late 1950s and early 1960s, his father, Zhang Kunsheng, participated in the construction of Xinjiang's first xinjiang-leaving railway, the Lanxin Railway. After the Lanxin Railway was completed and put into operation, Zhang Kunsheng stayed at Hami Station to become an overhauler. Since then, the family has been inextricably linked to the railway.

The four brothers of Zhang Xiayang listened to their father talk about the hardships of building the railway at that time: the Gobi Desert was scorching, and the wind blew up the gravel on the face, which made people more anxious that the rails could not be supplied in time, and the construction of the project stopped. Finally, by the end of 1962, the construction of the Lanxin Railway, which lasted 10 years and a total length of 1903 kilometers, was completed.

Today, his father Zhang Kunsheng has passed away, and the four brothers have also been engaged in railway-related work over the years. The eldest Zhang Chunyang and the second Zhang Xiayang both served as passenger drivers in the Hami locomotive section, and the China-Europe train on duty transported goods to many countries.

Zhang Xiayang's twin brother, Zhang Yanyang, is a train inspector at the Khorgos Train Inspection Institute in Xinjiang. Khorgos is one of the important ports between China and Kazakhstan, and the promotion of the "Belt and Road" initiative has made it known to more and more people. From January to November 2019, Khorgos Customs supervised a total of 16 China-Europe express trains such as "Yuxinou", "Zhengxinou" and "Rongxinou", with a total of 3044 trains, an increase of 83.82% year-on-year.

The growing number of China-Europe trains has increased Zhang Yanyang's workload, making him less and less likely to return to Hami.

Zhang Weiyang is the railway man furthest from home among the four brothers. In 2017, he was hired by China Communications Construction Co., Ltd. to help build the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway in Kenya. The railway connects Nairobi, kenya's capital, with the port city of Mombasa, with a total length of about 480 kilometers. Zhang Weiyang became the first family member to go abroad and participate in the construction of the "Belt and Road".

"The Belt and Road" has become a key word in the work of the four brothers. "All four of our brothers have chosen railway-related jobs and have become part of the Belt and Road Initiative." Zhang Xiayang said.

This Spring Festival, several brothers discussed, the old third Zhang Yanyang arranged for the duty to return to Hami, the mother who lived in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, received Hami, and then met with the fourth brother Zhang Weiyang through video. "It's a bit of a shame that the old four can't come back, but it's the closest the family has ever been to a reunion." Zhang Xiayang is full of expectations for the upcoming reunion.