Cui Zengqi: Journey to Hometown (5) - Trip to Nanjing Part 3 (Pictures)

Cui Zengqi: Trip to Hometown (5) - Trip to Nanjing Part 3 (Pictures) The next morning, we visited the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, which was the first bridge across the Yangtze River designed and constructed by the Chinese...

The next morning, we visited the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, which was the first railway-highway bridge across the Yangtze River designed and constructed by the Chinese. It was completed and opened to traffic on the eve of the National Day in 1968. It was a sensational event in China at the time. The first bridge on the Yangtze River was the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge built with Soviet aid in the 1950s. In the early 1960s, the relationship between China and the Soviet Union was tense. The Soviet Union withdrew all its experts and stopped all assistance to China, leaving not even a single piece of technical information. The Chinese people advocated "self-reliance, hard work, and independent innovation." Under very difficult conditions, they tightened their belts and survived. The successful detonation of the atomic and hydrogen bombs and the completion of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge were representative events of that era. The patriotic enthusiasm and dedication to science inspired by people at that time were very commendable. In 1985, when the Chinese government began to establish the National Science and Technology Progress Award, I came here as a construction industry review member to conduct a detailed inspection and proposed that the project apply for the special prize for science and technology progress that year, and it was successful. Twenty-five years have passed, and China's bridge construction technology has made rapid progress. Nanjing already has four Yangtze River bridges. In recent years, China has built the most bridges in the world, and has also entered the forefront of the world in terms of technology. It has successively built the world's longest 32.5-kilometer East China Sea Bridge (Shanghai to Yangshan Deep Water Port), the Hangzhou Bay Cross-sea Bridge from Shanghai to Ningbo, and the world's longest cable-stayed bridge - Su (Nan) Tong Bridge, and the longest arch bridge - Lupu Bridge. The next goal will be for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to jointly build the Strait Bridge and Tunnel from Fujian to Taiwan. History will open a new page.

The majestic Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge

Standing on the high bridgehead, looking at the rolling river, thousands of thoughts, national affairs, family affairs and world affairs came to my mind. The surging Yangtze River records the painful and heavy history of the Chinese people. My fathers' youth was spent in the Anti-Japanese War. Whether they carried guns and went to the front lines to kill the enemy, or supported the front lines from the rear, they all did it to drive the Japanese devils out of China as soon as possible. People will never forget the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese in China and the blood and tears of the Nanjing Massacre. The Chinese government decided to give up its demand for war compensation from Japan. I have never been able to figure out why. I still feel uncomfortable when I see that plaster flag. This is a plot that is difficult for our generation to understand. Today, some people in Japan still want to tamper with history and justify the war of aggression. This is absolutely unacceptable. Our descendants should never forget this period of history. After finally surviving the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, our own people started fighting again. The National Government at that time was indeed too corrupt. Although I was still a young man, I had already felt something. In Shanghai, the rich lived in revelry, singing and dancing; the poor had no food to eat and lived on the streets. In the past three years, the legal currency, silver dollar coupons, and gold dollar coupons had changed several times, and people's money became less and less valuable. People had to grab bags of banknotes to buy rice. Just imagine, can such a society last long? As a result, the army with millet and rifles defeated all the regular armies with sophisticated American equipment. The army without warships relied on ordinary people's sailboats to cross the Yangtze River and occupied the presidential palace. History is like this, those who win the hearts of the people win the world, and those who lose the hearts of the people lose the world. When the Communist Party came, people began to worry about the communists sharing their wives, and that the communist bandits were green faces and fangs. In fact, this was all political propaganda to deceive the people. Just like the later statement that the people of Taiwan were in dire straits under the rule of the Chiang bandits, it was also nonsense. In a period of limited information, politicians often took advantage of people's kindness and ignorance to deceive people. When the People's Liberation Army first entered the city, they followed the Three Major Disciplines and Eight Points of Attention, and worked hard to clean up the filth of the old society. The society was completely new. At that time, it was really possible to keep the doors open at night. The Communist Party proposed to build a new China, realize industrialization, and no longer be bullied and humiliated by outsiders. It won everyone's approval. Many patriotic and insightful people gave up preferential treatment abroad and defected to the motherland to participate in construction. Qian Xuesen was the most typical representative. The young people of our generation are ambitious and determined to dedicate everything they have to China's industrialization. We hope that China can build its own cars, planes and ships as soon as possible. After the liberation, there were five or six years of relatively stable and good times. Later, I don’t know whether it was due to overly aggressive policies or pride after success, or the cult of personality or the inevitable law of peasant leaders, or the conspiracy of ambitious people to usurp power, or the leaders competing for power. In short, it is not yet time to explain clearly the historical reasons, and it is not what this article wants to explain clearly. The fact is that the people of mainland China have once again fallen into confusion and suffering, and have experienced disasters including the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution not only devastated and destroyed thousands of years of Chinese culture and stagnated the national economy, but more seriously destroyed the relationships between people and basic moral principles, making everyone in danger and no one dared to tell the truth. There are fewer people who dare to think, speak, and act. The golden mean has taken over the mainstream of society. Many people put self-preservation and safety as the premise, and society has lost the driving force to move forward. At the same time, the Nationalist Government that retreated to Taiwan, after summing up the experience and lessons of its failure, put the national economy and people's livelihood first, and under the leadership of Mr. Chiang Ching-kuo, the mainland achieved economic growth in the first 20 years and became one of the Four Asian Tigers. Taiwan's democratic politics has also taken a big step forward. After nearly 20 years of suffering, mainland Chinese people opened their eyes to see the world again and found that astonishing changes had taken place. Deng Xiaoping saw this clearly and decided to correct the course, return China to the primary stage of socialism, coupled with reform and opening up, and cross the river by feeling the stones. It doesn't matter whether the cat is white or black, as long as it catches the mouse, it is a good cat. These popular languages ​​have brought China 30 consecutive years of high-speed economic growth. China has grown into the world's second largest economy and has once again become a pivotal and important member of the world organization. We are happy and proud of the development of our motherland. I am also pleased with the peaceful development and cooperation of cross-Strait relations. However, despite being excited, I always feel that there is something uneasy about me. I think there is a lack of national spirit and moral spirit in development; an economic development that lacks the support of spiritual power is difficult to last. Recently, China has re-advocated the Lei Feng spirit, presumably taking note of this. Another worrying thing is corruption and the lack of distinction between public and private affairs. Some people say that those who are now officials, as well as those without official hats, CEOs and managers of large and small state-owned enterprises, their food, clothing, housing, transportation, domestic and foreign travel, and gifts are all reimbursed by the public. This is a huge expense! Audi A4 and A6 are currently the standard cars for middle-level cadres in China. Nowadays, leaders like to drive their own cars with style and freedom, and all expenses are paid by the public. Not long before our trip, a six-seat school bus in Gansu Province had 60 students squeezed into it, causing it to overturn and kill more than a dozen people. People can't help but wonder why the money spent by cadres on cars is not used to buy school buses for the children. Corruption not only takes away millions of dollars of wealth, but also takes away the people's confidence in the government. In addition, the further improvement of democratic politics and how the political system adapts to the needs of economic development need to be gradually improved and improved. We love the motherland, we are happy for every achievement of the motherland, and we are also worried about the shortcomings of the motherland. This is the feeling of foreigners towards their loving mothers. Having written so much about state affairs, I will leave it to family matters later.