At 6:30 in the morning, Jimmy Mujia from Niuluo Village, Yiluodiba Town, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province opened his sleepy eyes, put on his school uniform, packed his schoolbag, and walked up the path to Puxiong Railway Station. Every day at 7:21 in the morning, the 5633 train will always enter the station slowly and on time, stopping for two minutes. In the era of high-speed rail, this train with an average speed of less than 40 kilometers per hour is somewhat unusual.

mobile village on the railway

51 years ago, with the extraordinary efforts of 300,000 road construction troops, the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, a major steel artery connecting Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, was opened to traffic. In Sichuan, it crosses the Liangshan Mountains and connects the once closed land with the outside world.

The 5634th train and the road to the station about to arrive at the Shamarada Station of the Chengdu-Kunming Railway

The 17-year-old Jimmy Mujia takes the 5633/5634 train every week between Puxiong and Panzhihua South. There are 26 stops along the 376-kilometer journey, and the whole journey takes 11 hours and 4 minutes. The highest fare is 25.5 yuan and the lowest is 2 yuan, which has not changed for more than 30 years.

Jimmy Mujia is a second-year student of Chuanxing Middle School in Xichang City. His home is 171 kilometers away from the school. It takes about 4 hours by car and the fare is 50 yuan. It takes about the same time to take the train, and the ticket is only 5 yuan.

On the platform, Jimmujia and his wife from Sugu Township, Yuexi County each carried a large bag containing two little pigs, which they were going to give to their parents-in-law living in Xichang.

The piglet that Jimujia, a Yi passenger from Sugu Township, Yuexi County, took on the train climbed out of the bag, and the 5633rd trip of the Chengdu Passenger Section of China Railway Chengdu Bureau Group Co., Ltd., the Yi nationality conductor Ermu Rigu helped him repack the piglet it is good. 5633/5634 trains are specially equipped with 6 Yi conductors to better serve the local Yi people.

In order to facilitate the transportation of livestock, there is a special zoo carriage on the train. Cattle, goats, fat pigs, and even horses are regular visitors here. When the train entered the station, the couple picked up the little pig and walked straight to the livestock carriage. Unexpectedly, a little white pig broke free and scurried all over the ground. The conductor and the couple chased after him for a while before they were "caught and brought to justice".

At the Ersai River Station, 55-year-old Cup La and Da got on the bus with more than 40 pounds of toon I only bought 4 after a while. Cup La and Da were not angry, just looked at everyone cheerfully.

In the other carriage, the aunt who sold zheergen sold half of the goods within four stops of the road. At the junction of the carriages, the two teenagers each held a stick and ate it raw, chewing with relish.

A Yi woman sells fresh zucchini to other passengers at the mobile market on the 5633 train

Two carriages away, someone had put a basket of chickens in the shape of a flower; not far away, a quack duck stuck its head out of its pocket...

happy slow train

The 46-year-old train conductor Liu Wei has been on this "small slow train" since graduating from junior high school for 28 years.

At that time, his father was assigned to the railway after his transfer from the Tibetan army, and Liu Wei lived beside the railway since he was a child. When he was a child, he took the train from Tiexi Station to Puxiong Town every morning to go to school, and his mother took potatoes and apples to Ganluo and other places by train to sell them. The whistle is the lullaby for people every night.

In the luggage compartment of the No. 5633 train, Liu Wei, the conductor of No. 5633/5634 of the Chengdu Passenger Transport Section of China Railway Chengdu Bureau Group Corporation, learned about the livestock carried by the villagers

Mosu, Ama Mosu, Sulu, and Xilai (Yi language: uncle, aunt, young man, girl), he addressed the passengers in this way, and the Chinese with a Yi accent was called Unity by colleagues.

He urges children to do their homework on the train, mediates disputes, and even builds a temporary delivery room. Some honest Yi villagers named the children born on the train as slow cars. Jicha local trains and Arno local trains are now frequent passengers on trains.

The slow train is a school bus for children, an ambulance for people to see a doctor, and a poverty alleviation vehicle for people to hope.

Some elderly passengers said that in the years without railways, eating salt was a problem, and they could only go out on horseback. The train not only took them away from the mountains, but also brought hope.

Lai Aga, 75, from Mianshan Town, Xide County, is a frequent passenger on train 5633/5634. She takes the train to Xichang every two weeks to wholesale small commodities. Combs, headbands, hairpins, socks filled the pockets. Although the small business profit is meager, it can subsidize the family and pass the lonely old age.

On the 5634th train, a 75-year-old Yi woman Lai Ajia was sorting out the goods she brought in from Xichang.

Over the years, many changes have come in and out of the car: buildings and greenhouses have "grown" on the once barren land in a few years, girls have schoolbags on their backs, little ones have entered kindergartens, young people have tattered clothes when they walk out of the mountains, When he came back, he was a fashionable youth.

There is a big ledger behind the small slow car

In today's China, there are 81 pairs of slow trains like the 5633/5634 trains, covering 530 stations in 21 provinces, passing through Liangshan in Sichuan, Yanbian in Jilin, eastern Inner Mongolia, western Hunan, Yunnan and Guizhou, and southern Xinjiang.

Small slow trains often pass through remote and impoverished areas, the fares have remained unchanged for decades, and operating losses are common. It seems that insisting on running a small slow car does not conform to the law of the market, but we must not only calculate the economic account, but the people's livelihood behind it. Tian Xiaochuan, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Chengdu Passenger Transport Section of China Railway Chengdu Bureau Group Corporation, said.

Two young passengers took the 5633 train to go to school

Shamarada Railway Station, one of the most difficult alpine stations on the Chengdu-Kunming Line, has stood alone on a cliff for 51 years, and the surrounding people have to take a car through the mountain trail. When the rainy season comes, the flood has not crossed the bridge, and people have to detour four or five kilometers to get to the station. In 2019, the construction of a road to the station started, and the road with more than two kilometers cost 15.44 million yuan, and the roadbed and protection projects alone cost more than 8 million yuan.

No railroad tracks stretch into the distance, with many railroad cemeteries along the way. More than 50 years ago, more than 2,000 people gave their lives for this railway. Wherever they died, their bones were buried.

Whenever he sees those tombstones, Liu Wei will pay attention. He said that although they were separated by more than half a century, they were doing the same thing for the people and the country, dedicating everything they could. They have no complaints, and neither do I. Editor / Zhao E