Taishan investment immigrants

In Taishan, Chen's name is a household name. His name is always associated with Nanjing Railway, as if it were an inseparable whole. Although the Chen-Sun Ning Railway looks tragic, its value is no longer a railway that no longer exists, but an epic, a unique culture in the hometown of overseas Chinese, and a spirit that will inspire future generations forever.

Tragic railway poems

"In Tanjiang, the train stopped. The wheels didn't move, and the scenery outside began to move slowly. This is not a miracle. This is the most beautiful project in sunning railway. There is no bridge here. When the train gets on the boat, stay on the boat and let the boat carry it slowly across the river. I look at all this and feel a kind of poetry. I seem to have read a real poem. "

Ba Jin's essay "Poetry of Machines" describes the spectacle of the only ship carrying a train across the river in China at that time, which left Suning Railway in the treasure house of China literature and won eternal life. The ship written by Ba Jin was sunk by the Japanese invaders at193710/5 in the afternoon130. After that, the Japanese aggressors bombed the Sun Ning Railway dozens of times, and many important facilities were destroyed. 19381February 12, Xu Jingtang, director of Jiangmen Office of the Fourth Route Army of the Kuomintang, ordered the governments of Xinhui and Taishan counties to completely destroy the Sun Ning Railway. Since then, sunning railway has ceased to exist. 1959165438+1On October 20th, the Property Liquidation Committee of Suning Railway Company entrusted the Second Salvage Team of Guangdong Navigation Department to salvage in Niuwan, and fished out more than 1000 tons of steel.

Eternal loyalty to the country

Xinning used to be the name of Taishan, and sunning railway was built by overseas Chinese Chen in Taishan who served the country and loved his hometown.

Chen (1844- 1929), a native of Langmei Village, Doushan, Xinning, immigrated to the United States in 1864. He has been engaged in railway construction in the United States for 40 years and has accumulated rich experience in railway engineering technology. The construction of the western railway in the United States has promoted urban construction and economic prosperity along the way, deeply inspired him and established his lofty ambition to build a railway for the motherland. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Qing court was corrupt, and people advocated "saving the country through industry". Chen strongly supports this idea. He changed his original plan of investing in the establishment of Huayang Weaving Factory in Hong Kong and decided to go back to his hometown to repair the railway, becoming the first person to run overseas Chinese business.

Sunning railway has a distinctive patriotic spirit since its establishment. Chen said: "I am angry with our right to road home and hold the hand of outsiders, but I don't care about this and advocate building a peaceful road." With the call of "no foreign shares, no foreign loans and no foreign workers", he advocated the construction of Jianning Railway, which was supported by the county people and overseas Chinese. In the process of preparation, Chen encountered many obstacles and many contradictions. According to the ninth issue of Taishan Xinning magazine 19 10, "each surname and ethnic group rarely depends on its dragon and tiger, which is strictly limited to its territory. Or superstitious feng shui, the rebels have it, or relying on power, the rebels have it. Wherever the project went, the waves were rough, and there were dozens of schemes before and after, and the line was forced to bend the track 29 times. " Although there are many obstacles in the future, Sun Ning Railway was built in 14 years, costing 8 million yuan, and the length of the railway was 138 kilometers, all of which were planned and built by China people, writing a glorious page in the construction of independent railways in China.

In recognition of his achievements, the board of directors of Xinning erected a bronze statue for him at Taicheng Railway Station. At that time, 76-year-old Chen expressed his four wishes to continue his efforts: first, build Niuwan Railway Bridge; Second, the construction of Yangjiang branch line; Third, build water lights for the whole Taishan city; Fourth, develop Taishan Hot Springs. He said emotionally: "This is all for the benefit of the local public. The purpose of the four people is to comfort the volunteers." Chen's four wishes, even today, are enough to move people. Of course, this ambition has been fully realized by the latecomers: hydropower, the development of Sanhe hot springs, the completion of public welfare bridges, and the opening of western coastal highways. These are beyond Chen's ideals.

Used to be prosperous.

Saving the country by industry was once the dream of many overseas Chinese, and Sun Railway was Chen's effort to turn this dream into reality, which had a very positive impact on the development of overseas Chinese hometown.

It is said that Sun Ning Railway was operated by trains and railcars. Later, the construction of the railway and the extension of the railway operation promoted the prosperity of Wuyi Highway construction and water transportation at that time. Taishan alone has built 387 kilometers of roads at 1925- 1937, forming a water transport network of Taishan, Jiangmen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Zhaoqing and Wuzhou. At the same time, it also promoted the prosperity of the towns along the Sun Ning Railway, such as osawa, Si Qian, Gongyi, Dajiang, Taicheng, Doosan, etc., which all prospered because of the Sun Ning Railway. Taishan, Xinhui and Jiangmen quickly built modern factories such as machinery, electric power, paper making and sugar making, and the cultural and educational undertakings developed unprecedentedly, which made the economic development of Siyi County in Jiangmen at that time at the forefront of the county-level economy in China. It is not difficult to imagine that if the Sunning Railway has been in operation so far, the lush fields of Taishan have long been a modern city with high-rise buildings.

Chen's patriotism and love for his hometown has always inspired and inspired thousands of overseas Chinese at home and abroad to make unremitting efforts to build the motherland and hometown. According to the relevant personnel of Taishan Archives Bureau, in September last year, an overseas Chinese living in new york returned to China and decided to rebuild the Sun Ning Railway. However, today's Taishan and even the whole China are far from the situation at that time. Xintai Expressway runs through the north and south of Taishan City, and the coastal expressway in western Guangdong runs through the east and west of Taishan City. Taishan city has convenient land and water transportation and roads extending in all directions. People concerned believe that if the Sun Ning Railway is rebuilt, its significance will be greater than the actual effect, and even due to the limitations of historical, regional and economic development, it will face long-term loss-making operation.

Looking in the rain

After 10 years of wind and rain, only one railway station in the field of Jiu Si Town, Taishan City and the former site of Jiangmen North Street Railway Station are left in Sun Ning Railway, which is now used as a library by Jiangmen Customs. In order to preserve the cultural heritage of Mount Tai, Taishan City has made a lot of efforts. Now Chen's former residence is listed as a key cultural relics protection unit in Guangdong Province, and the bronze statue and monument of Chen on Taicheng Commercial Pedestrian Street Square are key cultural relics protection units in Jiangmen City. Taishan City has also made efforts to declare "Chen-Suning Railway" as "China Archives Heritage". On this basis, further exploring the cultural essence of Shanghai-Nanjing Railway and the tourism effect of Chen's former residence will promote the construction of Taishan as a cultural city and provide valuable wealth for Taishan to build a cultural city with the characteristics of overseas Chinese hometown.

Chen's former residence is in Meitang Village, Doushan Town. In the rain, I only saw two big three-story houses erected in rural farmland, with blue bricks and black tiles, old big house rafters and traditional hard wooden doors in Lingnan. In the sudden rainstorm in July in the south, they hid for a hundred years. Most of the villagers in Meitang Village are surnamed Chen, who moved here with Chen from Langmei Village in his early years. The two big houses in Chen's former residence have a history of 100 years, and his relatives have been living in the former residence. Less than 500 meters away from his former residence, there is a building built by the pond, which is quite foreign. This is Chen's library, which was later used as a school. It is said that Chen lived here in his later years. After seeing that the Sun Ning Railway, which he painstakingly managed, was taken over, he went back to his hometown and became insane, but he kept saying that he would build a railway and open a commercial port. 1929, Chen passed away in grief and indignation, with as many as ten thousand people in undertaker. At the funeral, it was raining cats and dogs, as if God was in tears.

The bronze statue of Chen Memorial standing at the railway station was demolished during the Cultural Revolution, but the history is notarized, and Chen's patriotic spirit of benefiting one side has always been admired by people. 1984, Taishan County People's Government restored the bronze statue of Chen Memorial according to its original appearance. Under the bronze statue, there is an inscription by the Taishan County People's Government: "Stones can be broken, but they cannot be taken away; Dan can be ground, and the collar will fade; The bronze statue of Chen was destroyed by the ten-year catastrophe, and its glorious image of patriotism and love for hometown is indelible. In order to commemorate Chen Gong's achievements in developing hometown transportation and praise his indomitable spirit of struggle, a bronze statue was re-established for him. "