Cui Zengqi: Trip to Yunnan (1)

Cui Zengqi: Trip to Yunnan (1) Last year, I went back to China to take part in a low-cost trip to the south of the Yangtze River. This year, my return coincided with the American Overseas Chinese Newspaper and the Los Angeles Travel Agency’s launch of the US$99...

Last year, I went back to China to take part in a low-priced tour to the south of the Yangtze River. When I returned to China this year, the American Overseas Chinese Newspaper published an article in the Los Angeles Travel Agency launching a seven-day tour of Yunnan for US$99, which aroused my great interest. Yunnan is the place where I lived before I was eight years old. I spent my childhood in that remote mountainous area and have many unforgettable memories. I don't know why, I have always had such an inseparable feeling for this land. My trip departed from Suzhou at 10 a.m. and took the intercity high-speed rail to Shanghai Hongqiao Airport in about 30 minutes. The high-speed rail station and the airport entrance are connected together. It took off at 12 o'clock and arrived at Kunming Chunshui Airport at 3:30 in the afternoon. The whole journey took only five hours. The comfortable and fast trip reminded me of my childhood trip to Kunming. In 1938, it was an era when Japanese invaders were tyrannical on Chinese soil. The Chinese government had moved its capital to Chongqing. Many patriotic young people did not want to live the life of subjugated slaves and followed the government to retreat to the rear to persist in the war of resistance. My father followed a group of patriots from the Kuomintang Resources Committee to Yunnan to develop the Mingliang Coal Mine and support the Anti-Japanese War. After my father arrived at his destination, the Japanese had blocked the land route, so my mother had to take me, who had just learned to walk, by sea to Hong Kong, and then from Vietnam's Haiphong via the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway to Kunming, where our family was reunited. This is by no means a journey in the ordinary sense, but an escape. In an era when the country was ruined and the family was destroyed, in order to survive, people carried large and small bags on their backs, crowded into smelly cabins, and were always on guard against bombings from Japanese planes. It took nearly a month to complete the journey. Some compatriots also lost their lives before reaching their destination. I didn’t remember anything at the time, I just snuggled in my mother’s arms and watched everything that happened with my eyes wide open. These are the stories my mother told me, and she also left this used passport photo to bear witness to this painful journey.

In 1945, the Anti-Japanese War was victorious and the little Japanese surrendered. People were happy and excited. People who had been away from their hometown for eight years wanted to return home and reunite with their families as soon as possible. At that time, there were very few people flying, and a very small number of wealthy people who were high-ranking officials got on the plane and returned to Nanjing and Shanghai; most people could only plan to travel home by land. At that time, there was no railway from Yunnan to the country, so returning home by road was the only option. So my parents took me on the journey home. I was eight years old at that time, had finished fourth grade, and had a complete memory. We started from Kunming and first took a bus through Guizhou to Changsha, Hunan. This was a dangerous journey. More than thirty people sat in a large covered truck. The truck was driven by burning charcoal. Every morning, the co-driver had to get up early to light the ignition. The truck could not start until nine o'clock. He had to stay at about four o'clock in the afternoon because bandits were very rampant in Guizhou at that time and driving in the dark was very dangerous. Later, I once went to Guizhou to recruit workers and talked with local young people about their family history, and I learned that almost every family was related to bandits, which is evident from this. In addition, Guizhou is full of mountain roads, and the speed of classic cars is more than ten kilometers per hour. From time to time, everyone has to get out together to push the cars. In this way, we averaged one hilltop a day, and after walking for about 20 days, we finally arrived in Changsha. From Changsha, I transferred to a tugboat, which meant using a robotic boat to drag several wooden boats across Dongting Lake for five days. Then I took a larger riverboat from Wuhan to Nanjing, and from Nanjing I took a train back to Shanghai. We originally set off from Kunming after New Year's Day and planned to rush back to Shanghai to celebrate the New Year. However, it turned out that it was already the first day of the Lunar New Year when the ship passed Anqing, and the whole journey took more than a month. This is a difficult journey, but the mood is always sunny, because the Japanese devils have been defeated, and we are citizens of the victorious country. The painful journey during the Japanese occupation, the arduous journey during the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, and this relaxed and happy journey formed a sharp contrast. No matter how much harm the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China and the constant political movements have caused to people, the progress of science and technology and the development of society are unstoppable. Our country has indeed undergone earth-shaking changes in the past seventy years. The plane landed at the newly built Chunshui International Airport, the fourth largest airport in China. I got off the plane and walked to the exit for half an hour. I don't like this airport because it's too big, too new, feels empty, and too far from the city. More importantly, I love Wujiaba. Kunming Airport has always been known as Wujiaba Airport, which was built in 1922 with the help of the French. During the Anti-Japanese War, the headquarters and main base of the Flying Tigers led by General Chennault were located here. How many anti-Japanese heroes have lived and worked here, and how many heroic stories have been told here. Wujiaba Airport and the hump route opened at that time made important contributions in the late Anti-Japanese War. Wujiaba, what a beautiful name, when I came to visit you again, you actually retired at the age of ninety.