Spring Festival trip in 2018 (2) - Renzi Bridge and Bise Village

During the Spring Festival of 2018, a car with four people started from Jingzhou, passed through Guilin, and headed west from the border of Guangxi to Honghe Prefecture in Yunnan. We left the expressway in Wenshan, the hometown of Panax notoginseng, and after many twists and turns, we found a path along the mountains and cliffs, and passed through the thrilling journey to the famous Yunnan-Vietnam Railway project in the deep mountains and old forests of Wujiazhai, Pingbian County - the Herringbone Bridge. Under modern traffic conditions, it is so difficult to reach the Herringbone Bridge. It is conceivable that it was difficult to participate in railway construction a hundred years ago. The courage of the Chinese is commendable, and the engineering design of the French is also remarkable.

I read about the Herringbone Bridge in National Geographic of China a few years ago and I have never forgotten it. On the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, the herringbone bridge is still standing. It has been exposed to rain and wind for more than a hundred years, reflecting the vicissitudes of time. I walked over the mountains and ridges early in the morning and came here in admiration of the mountains and rivers, just to recall the traces of this bridge. Time will pass, and the bridge will become obsolete. What is not old is the cultural heritage and historical vicissitudes across the cliff. What is described with light ink and sparse brushstrokes is only the scene in front of you. In the place of wonder and awe, look for the untouchable but eternal endurance. Live the past of savoring and pondering.

We parked the car near the old station of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and walked a section of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway: from the tunnel at one end of the herringbone bridge, we walked in the dark to the herringbone bridge.

In the absence of modern engineering conditions, the tunnel excavated by Chinese workers through semi-manual work under the guidance of French engineers has been operating safely for more than 100 years. The dark tunnel was very quiet, and time seemed to have stopped a hundred years ago. The lives of nearly a thousand workers marked the tunnels and bridges with fresh life. Step on the ballast and walk slowly along the railway track towards the bright light at the entrance of the tunnel. Slowly, you can see the swaying figures of tourists in twos and threes, as if they have been transported from a hundred years ago to modern society.

A century-old herringbone bridge in the mountains

The Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, which has gone through a century of vicissitudes, has many attractions: the herringbone bridge is Quietly hidden at the top of Wujiazhai Canyon The century-old engineering miracle has poor road conditions and poor accessibility, so there are not many tourists. Bisezhai became famous after it became the filming location of the movie "Youth". Moreover, Bisezhai is close to Mengzi, the capital of Honghe Prefecture, and has good transportation conditions. It is natural that Bisezhai has become a tourist hotspot.

The initial impression of Bisezhai came from the novel "Bisezhai" written by Fan Wen, a Tibetan writer. The book describes positively the French and Chinese living together as equals, using French technical advantages and Chinese human resources to build the first railway in Yunnan, transforming Yunnan in mainland China into a port for foreign development on land in China. Coupled with the Western religious culture brought by missionaries, the cultural accomplishment of Yunnan, a land of southern barbarians, has skyrocketed, confirming the principle that foreign exchanges produce wealth and civilization.

It was a hundred years after the completion of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway that Bise Village came to people’s attention again because of a movie. Standing on the endless meter-gauge railway and looking hard, it seems that you can vaguely see a train speeding from the depths of time more than 100 years ago. The hour hand of the foreign clock on the stage has always stayed at the most prosperous moment of the small station. The current small station has long been washed away, leaving only its pure appearance.

Information: The Yunnan-Vietnam Railway is the first railway in the history of Yunnan and also the first railway in my country leading to foreign countries. The Herringbone Bridge was designed by French female engineer Bauer-Baudin. Construction started on March 10, 1907 and was completed on December 6, 1908, which lasted one year and seven months. The herringbone bridge is constructed of more than 20,000 sets of rivets, with the largest component less than 2.5 meters. They were all made in France and then shipped to Yunnan. When riveting bridge components, it is even more thrilling. The arch arms are suspended in mid-air in the valley. This kind of work is so life-threatening that the French have to give the stimulation of "half an ocean for every hammer blow". Here, life seems to be It is so fragile that the construction of the herringbone bridge cost more than 800 lives. This has never happened in the history of bridge construction in the world. The grid-shaped trusses and herringbone arches on the herringbone bridge are integrated and fly across the cliffs of the two mountains. The construction concept of the herringbone bridge is the same as that of the Eiffel Tower in France. It is a masterpiece in the history of railway bridges in the world. It is also known as the world's three major projects along with the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal. This light and strong bridge is listed in the "World Famous Bridge History".

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