Century-old Bisezhai shines with new vigor
Bisezhai is located in Mengzi City, south Yunnan’s Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture. In 1909, the Gejiu-Bisezhai section of the Gejiu-Bisezhai-Shiping railway with a 60cm gauge was put into service.
Since then, the Bisezhai village has been home to two train stations, a transfer area for passengers and goods, and the only Yunnan junction where railways with two types of track gauge meet. Along with frequent communications came the fashionable exotic culture and flourishing trade.
Developing tourism on the basis of its history and culture, Bisezhai has by now enriched the surrounding villagers, while passing down heritages of the Yunnan-Vietnam railway. In the future, Bisezhai will be built into a park themed on the historical railway, resurrecting its past prosperous scenes.
Historical glory
Boarding the shuttle buses from downtown Mengzi to Caoba Town, we reached the Bisezhai village half an hour later. A highway cuts Bisezhai into halves: one is an ancient village formerly called “Poxin”, the other is the Bisezhai train station. With the noon sunshine splashing on the tracks, visitors were idling about, recalling the by-gone days.
We got close to the station building with red tiles and yellow walls, the purple-red blind window, the water tower that is tall and tubular… The most striking are the lustering tracks in front of the station building. Guided by local villagers, we walked along the tracks to approach the destination. We first caught sight of a tennis court, which did not draw our attention until a sign was noticed: The 1st tennis court in Yunnan.
Bisezhai is the only Yunnan junction where the 60-centimeter-gauge track meets the one-meter-gauge track. “In the past, the Bisezhai station was much larger, extending to where the highway is now lying,” said Zhong Sheng, a designer. As a Mengzi native, he is especially interested in railways, sharing on WeChat pictures of railways around China so that the rail stories will be known to more.
“There was once a tiny stone wall near the highway. The gate of the Bisezhai station stood there, but it is out of sight now.” Zhong said there were eight tracks in the village: Four belonged to the Yunnan-Vietnam railway with the one-meter gauge, and the remaining four tracks were part of the Gejiu-Bisezhai-Shiping railway. Now, only three one-meter tracks are left, while the other five have all been removed.
As for the question why Bisezhai could involve into a junction of two rail types, Zhong explained: “First, Bisezhai is located in the middle of the Yunnan-Vietnam railway’s Chinese section, 177 kilometers off Hekou near the China-Vietnam border and 288 km away from Kunming. Then, the village is just 10 km off Mengzi, a place of strategic importance in south Yunnan, and it is adjacent to Mengzi Customs. Lastly, Bisezhai neighbors the once busy Changqiaohai port, allowing cargos shipped from Gejiu, Shiping and Jianshui to access direct train service thereat.”
Across from the Bisezhai station, there stands a conspicuous building, former site of Datong Company, which used to be the largest transit firm in Yunnan. “It is the best witness of the once prosperous freight transport in Bisezhai.” Villagers say tens of storerooms still remain in the court yard.
Ever-lasting charm
In 2003, passenger services on the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway were suspended, but tourists flocked to the Bisezhai train station for its century-old charm. Of the 86 historical structures in the core area, 11 belong to cultural relics under state protection. So how to protect the historic sites at the maximum rate is a question that Bisezhai has to address in developing cultural tourism.
To better protect the century-old historic railway, Mengzi City launched a renovation project for the Bisezhai train station. According to Feng Mei, deputy director general of the Mengzi Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the crafts and materials are fully preserved in restoring the cultural relics, and components of the buildings, be it a large part or a nail, are specially made in the birth place out of the original materials. “In making the bricks, for example, it occurred to us that local clay was not good enough, so we visited the Guzhai village in search well-preserved clay bricks,” said Feng. Thanks to long-term effort, the ten renovated sites in Bisezhai were checked and accepted by Yunnan Cultural Heritage Administration, restoring the century-old Yunnan-Vietnam Railway to the highest degree.
Entering the Bisezhai village and stepping on the lumpy stones nowadays, visitors are enchanted by the historic railway before them: The French-style station building still stands there, shining with yellowish walls and red tiles. Built out of metals, the worn water tower has grown to be rusty. Time has taken away Bisezhai’s grandeur in days gone by, but its Chinese name engraved on the wall remains conspicuous. In the sunset glow, the Bisezhai scene looks especially touching, and closing the eyes, we almost hear the roaring trains coming and going.