Liu Lixin, a conductor for the train connecting Yuci and Xiangyuan in Shanxi province, walks by the train on Feb 12.[Photo by SUN RUISHENG/CHINA DAILY] With the world's largest and fastest-expanding high-speed railway network, China has updated its railway timetable frequently over the past few years. But the timetable to a passenger train service connecting Yuci and Xiangyuan, two county-level regions 195 kilometers apart in the Tai-hang Mountains in North China's Shanxi province, has remained unchanged since its maiden run a quarter century ago. Pulled by old fashioned diesel locomotives, the trains shuttling daily along the railway among mountains between the two regions only has three carriages - two for passengers and one for luggage, making it the shortest regular passenger train in China, and it is also one of the slowest, chugging along the line at an average speed of less than 30 km per hour, or one-tenth the bullet train's rate. The line goes through six counties, home to about 3 million mostly rural residents, and plays an important role in the lives of locals. The train offers a shortcut to the provincial capital Taiyuan, 27 km north of Yuci. Locals call the train the Taihang bus, and a one-way ticket between Yuci and Xiangyuan is just 10.5 yuan ($1.65), compared to 7.5 yuan 25 years ago. Although the train is not fast, it is punctual in almost all weather, said Zhang Bo, head of the passenger service section of the Taiyuan railway administrative department. All the counties are accessible via highway now. Nevertheless, the train is cheaper and more reliable though it is always crowded in bad weather, Zhang said. Almost all the tiny stations along the line are located in highlands near small villages because the line was built in the 1960s with the initial purpose of transporting coal. It serves mountain residents directly. They take their millet, dates and walnuts they plant and chicken eggs to the counties to sell and this train is their first choice, Zhang added. Ma Jizhen of Xiangyuan, who used to be a regular passenger of the train, has increased her income markedly in this way since the train service was launched. The train opens a door for the people living in the mountains. It brings about happiness and opportunities, Ma said. Local government figures show the mountainous region used to be a poverty-stricken area, and most farmers had lived a subsistence-level life for generations. However, over the past 25 years, most of them have bid farewell to poverty. Accustomed to the clickity-clack lulling people to sleep, Liu Lixin, 52, who has worked on the train as a vendor, attendant and conductor for nearly half of his life since 1993, is familiar with not only every one of the 22 stations, 56 tunnels and 142 bridges along the 195-km line, but also his regular passengers. Over 25 years, I saw them grow up from students to businesspeople and professionals, and I also have seen them grow old from parents to grandparents. The train is like a home to me, Liu said. Liu said many of his older passengers now operate lodging facilities for tourists in the villages, and the carriages are often filled with hikers and backpackers looking for fun in the mountains. custom bar braceletcustom sports braceletscustom logo wristbandsde securite pour personne ageeembossed wristbandscolorfilled wristbandsembossed printed wristbandsdual layer wristbands
A ship cruises in the Wanzhou section of the Three Gorges Reservior, April 23, 2018. [Photo/IC] CHONGQING - It's 11 am and 40 degrees Celsius on deck. Liu Bo and his cleaning team have been working for four hours straight, collecting trash from the river. Working on the river is harsh. It's either too hot in summer or too cold in winter, Liu said. Liu is a member of the cleaning team in Wanzhou, a district in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. Since the Three Gorges Dam was built, the flow of the Yangtze River has slowed down. As a result, trash and withered plants accumulate rapidly on the water. This is not just unpleasant to look at, but also hinders ship navigation. If the trash is not cleared in time, it will rot. You could smell the odor even on the other side of the river, said Chen Yu, deputy director with the district's environment and sanitation office. So in 2003, the local government started a river-cleaning project and assembled a cleaning team to collect trash and clean the river. We live on the boats, sailing with the wind and fighting the waves as we collect the trash, Liu said. Usually, we start work at six o'clock in the morning and work for a dozen hours straight. The cleaning team now has 25 full-time members, and 20 boats. And recently, technology has become a great help. The team is equipped with four new mechanized boats, and the cleaners can now collect more than 50 tonnes of trash in an hour. Manual labor doesn't come close. If the team only has nets and pitchforks, 5 tonnes of trash is a whole day's work, said Chen. Last year, the team collected 28,000 tonnes of trash from the river. The local government knows that just cleaning up isn't enough. To solve the problem at its root, chemical plants and battery factories along the river have been shut down, and illegally-operated private dining ships have been blocked from entering the river. Tourists and locals are encouraged not to throw their waste into the river. My parents used to complain about my job, saying that it was toilsome and lacked high pay, Liu said. But when I took them to the river bank, they stopped complaining as they saw the river was clean and peaceful. We made the river beautiful again and I'm proud to be on the team.
