Cui Zengqi: Journey Back Home II, Entering Beijing

Cui Zengqi: Journey Returning Home II, Entering Beijing Phoenix City Cui Zengqi The plane landed at the Capital International Airport. The spacious and bright Terminal 2 was exactly where I was before I immigrated to the United States...

Phoenix City Cui Zengqi

The plane landed at the Capital International Airport. The spacious and bright Terminal 2 was exactly the project I participated in bidding for before immigrating to the United States. Later, Terminal 3 was built one after another. Beijing Airport has become a world-class airport. The customs clearance procedure was also very simple. Within thirty minutes, we met our son at the airport exit. The first problem encountered in the capital is traffic jams. It only takes more than 20 minutes to get from the airport to Chaoyang Park, where my son lives, but it took us an hour and a half to complete the whole journey. On the airport expressway, the traffic is crawling like a snail. If you are in a hurry, you can catch up by getting off the car and unloading your car and then running for a few steps. After all, my son has lived in this city for many years and has mastered the skills of driving in traffic jams. The first is to take advantage of the empty space and use the front of the car to merge first, and there is no way to give in; the second is to follow the taxi and occupy the emergency lane. The emergency lane is a dedicated passage used by emergency vehicles and police cars in the event of an accident. General vehicles are not allowed to occupy it, but due to severe traffic jams, people can't care much about it. Taxi drivers are most familiar with police presence and camera locations. They know when and when the emergency lane is occupied without being discovered by the police, and it is right to follow them. Third, use the I-phone navigation system, which will remind you at any time that there is a surveillance camera 50 meters ahead, so you can quickly return to the congested lane. This fully reflects Chinese characteristics. Chinese people often like to play around with things, and there are obvious cultural differences with Americans who follow the rules and do everything according to regulations. Therefore, some of us Chinese often say that foreigners are stubborn. I have lived in the United States for a long time, and I feel that it is easier to deal with dead-headed people.

When people reach a certain age, they like nostalgia even more. When I return home this time, I especially want to see Beijing again and stir up memories of the past. I have lived in this city for thirty-five years. It can be said that except for my childhood and student days, the living parts of my life are related to this city. I entered the third year of life full of ideals, and spent the last year of my life with a sense of reality and illusion. I knew my destiny but still didn’t know where my destiny was, and in the blink of an eye I entered the year of hearing. I stumbled here and spent most of my life in this ancient and charming city.

I got off the bus in Dongdan and first went to look for the Dongdan Ertiao single dormitory where I lived in Beijing. I have lived in this building for eight years. The three-story building built with red bricks has disappeared. The whole thing is gone. Mr. Li Ka-shing used his keen eyes to buy the golden area next to Chang'an thirty years ago and built Li Ka-shing Plaza. The price of this piece of land has already doubled dozens of times and he has made a lot of money. This is how rich people can make money, be patriotic, and gain both fame and fortune. When I was in Paris, a friend once said half-jokingly to an official of the embassy in France: "Don't you say that the revolution has no distinction between before and after? How come the money is so rich now?" In fact, this friend is too naive. Since ancient times, only those with wealth can be angry! Being short of money, he can only be a poor scholar. There is no exception in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. Even in the United States, which is known as the most democratic country in the world and guarantees equal human rights, it is impossible to run for president or congressmen without the support of a considerable amount of money or a financial group.

Walking eastward along Chang'an Daquan, a five-story high-quality red brick building still stands there. Although high-rise buildings have been built around it, opposite the New Beijing Hotel, she looks a bit old, but she still retains her graceful and luxurious beauty. This is the office building of the Ministry of Coal Industry where I entered the capital to work in 1964. When I stepped up the high steps in front of the door step by step, I felt extremely excited and proud. Young people are ambitious and full of energy, and are determined to accomplish something vigorous and vigorous. I was selected to the national industry leadership department after accumulating practical experience at the grassroots level. I felt that I shouldered an extremely important responsibility. I had to give full play to my talents and bring a new situation to China's coal construction industry. At that time, it seemed that the future and destiny of the country were all my responsibility. Who has never been young? Who has never been crazy? I found an old photo in a photo album of me standing in front of an office building. My eyes were full of thinking about the future, but my feet were filled with hesitation. This is very much a microcosm of my life. Attached: old photos

I worked in this building for six years, until Lin Biao issued Order No. 1 and Mao Zedong issued the May 7th Directive. I was sent to the May 7th Cadre School to learn farming and raising pigs and received re-education from poor and lower-middle peasants. I did not make any achievements in work. It was an era where class struggle was the key link. Not long after I arrived at my new post, I was assigned to the four-clean-up task force to go to the grassroots level to investigate the four clean-ups. No matter what line of work you are in, state agency cadres must first serve the central task of the party and put aside professional work first. When we went down to help the grassroots cadres, #27927; took a bath downstairs? When we returned to the office, the Cultural Revolution, which started with the student union, came suddenly again. We were really caught off guard, so people stopped going to work and wrote big-character posters, criticizing the capitalist roaders, and wages were not increased but they were paid every month. The supreme directive was issued every three days, so we put up big slogans on the door saying we firmly supported it, and walked to Tiananmen with small flags. On those days when everyone was drunk, I didn’t have the special ability to wake up alone. The scene seemed real and illusory, everything seemed to be in a dream, precious time passed in confusion. Our office building is only 200 meters away from Tiananmen Square. You can see the Tiananmen Gate Tower from the office. Every time Premier Zhou Enlai accompanied foreign heads of state from the airport, he must pass by our door. We waved flowers at the office window to express welcome. Prince Sihanouk and Princess Monique were our frequent visitors in those years, and we also welcomed heads of state from Asia, Africa and Latin America many times. At that time, China's only friends were Cuba, North Korea and Albania. Looking back, that was the period when I was most energetic between the ages of 28 and 35. I wasted my precious youth in this way according to the organization's arrangements. After that, there were another six years of cadre school career, where I studied Marxism-Leninism, experienced the hard life of Chinese farmers, and learned how rice and wheat grow through my own labor. Mao Zedong criticized us intellectuals who grew up in cities and ate every day without knowing how rice was grown. Indeed. But it took us time to finish college and then graduate school to get this certificate of rice growth.

In 1976, when I returned to my job in Beijing, the national economy had entered an extremely difficult situation. The national economic sector also made major adjustments, with coal, petroleum, and chemical industries merged into one sector. Immediately afterwards, within a year, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Mao Zedong passed away one after another. Heaven and man responded. A major earthquake occurred in Tangshan, the Gang of Four was ousted, and China began a new era. As I enter my forties, I have lost the vigor of youth; I have been tempered by many political movements, and the edges of the past have long been polished off. What survives is a sense of nationality. I have contributed a small amount to the prosperity of the country and the prosperity of the people. In order not to live a prosperous life, I have devoted myself to the ranks of striving for the realization of the four modernizations of the motherland.