WOW| A city I knew & a city I know

When Istarted to learn English, my teacher said to methatif a foreigner asks you where your hometown is, you can tell him you live nearby the Yangzi River, which is well known all over the world, instead of this county’s name—Zhongxianin Chongqing, because even the best knowledgeable people perhaps know Chongqing, but Zhongxian, one of its small counties, still makes no concept in many people’s mind.

Actually, Inever have a chance to say this, because the city has been developing so fast that some foreign investors have already set factories here and itslocal products, like orange juice, have been selling overseas. And the brand new titles of the city, like orange city in China（“中国橘城”）,and its cultural sites, like Shibaozhaior Precious Stone Fortress（“石宝寨”）, and its cultural products, like FengYanSanGuo(《烽烟三国》)，are catching more eyes at home and abroad.

Zhongxian is situated at central Chongqing, one of the four municipalities in China, and it is the heartland ofthe Three GorgesReservoiras well. The character “Zhong(忠)”here, entitled by Emperor Taizong of Tang, refers to “royality”.

With a more-than-one-million population, Zhongxian is the only county whose name has the character “Zhong”in China. While it is worth differentiating blind royalty, indicating that if the ruler wants his vassal to die, then he must die, from royalty to one’s own duty and fulfilling one’s own tasks, it is clear that the “Zhong”in Zhongxian means the latter, according to Chinese scholar Wang Luxiang.

Zhongxian at night.by Yang Lei

Over the past 20 years, the city Iknew came to disappear, and after the Three Gorges project successfully conserved water up to 175 meters, two thirds of the old city has been submerged. Then the present city is established based on more and more modernized shopping malls and resident buildings with 20 or 30 floors.

When Iwentback to my hometown this Spring Festival, Ialso foundthat more caféshops and restaurants serving western food sprung up, besides new buildings. And the city Iknow now seems more open both in its appearance and in the lifestyle of its people.

Acity Iknew

The old city.Photo by Tan Xinyu

The old city.Photo by Tan Xinyu

The old city 3. Photo by Tan Xinyu

However, the city Iknew inthepast, small and undeveloped, bears much fun that the children now could not image and experience.

After regularschool hours, we could enjoy ourselves by throwing schoolbagsat home and running with friends to the vast bank of the Yangzi River, filled with pebbles and dust, where we flew a kite, caught crabs and tadpoles. Icould go to the only downtown street traversing the county to buy food, drinks or any daily necessities, even to see a doctor or to enjoy Sichuan Operas.

People at that time lived in a close neighborhood,two or three families in a big yard, and sometimes a floor had four or even ten families, who shared one balcony, very long Imust say, on which neighbors liked to share gossips and engage in entertaining activities, such as playing cards or mahjongamong adults andenjoyingrough-and-tumble playamong kids.

Thanks to the simple and unsophisticated folkways, the scene that grandparents and their grandchildren enjoy sunshine together, or the elder sit on a wooden bench with a cat, on a warm afternoon was seen more often.

Due to widespread farm land, there was an orchard next to the elementary school, where Iwas studying, my buddiesand I had been scolded for several times because of climbing trees in the orchard after school and forgetting to go home on time.

This is the city Iknew, where Icould walk to the furthest place within half an hour, where local people could only connect with the outside world through boats, where people living in houses surrounded by rivers and mountains were hard to envisage an endless plain.

Acity Iknow

Partsof the old city are in front, and the new city is on the back.Photo by Tan Xinyu

Things are different in recent years. Local people frequently connect with outside world through Internet or go travel by bus or car, taking a train or a flight, while passenger liners seem to fade into history, with mostly cruise ships and freighters left on the river.

The next day when Iwent back home, my seven-year-old niece wanted me to help her learn ABC, and what her grandmother told me was that many kids in my niece’s class have been studying English by taking extra class after school. At the same time, the grandma who has only received primary education could not understand at all why other kids are so eager to learn some foreign language, since English is not included in the curriculum.

Of course, Iam happy to teach herand also love to hear that she is interested in English;meanwhile Isensed some competitive smell of gunpowder spilled over from larger cities. For these kids now in my hometown, on the one hand, they have more channels to find and developtheir interests, for example, either taking online courses or extra classes in market-oriented education organizations is a good option. On the other hand, less leisure time is left for them to explore nature, as if these days when children cannot wait to throw bags at home and ask pals to go out to fulfill a day were gone.

In the concrete jungle, it is impossible for a kid to ask a blame for forgetting the time because of rushing to climb a tree. And flying a kite sometimes just means running circles in a square full of people.

Majority of the previous downtown street nowadays has down into water, and the survival part comes to be bleak and losing luster against the backdrop of high architectures behind.

People now seldom share a yard or balcony, and they are also not accustomed to share gossips and secrets with neighbors, the reason is that more and more people buy commercial houses, so the most possible condition is that these property owners did not know each other before, and hardly meet each other after moving in as a result of hard work and little public room for usually two neighbors on the same floor to get familiar with each other. This is not like the situation over ten years ago, when people lived in different apartments on a basis of different workplaces, for most of the time state-owned entities. But another way replaced—at last, they share gossips with companions of square dance.

A part of the flourish street over ten years ago.Photo by Tan Xinyu

Walking along the narrow street of the old city remained today, arches, steps and houses made of simple stones are still bearing their missions for fewer people than before. For those dwelling on the street from then to now, they insist on doing business just outside their doors, but there are no mobile vendors hawking their wares in the street.

The previous Sichuan Opera theatre becomes a kindergartennow. Photo by Tan Xinyu

The function of the street used to be comprehensive, including public service institutions in charge of sports and culture, what Isee now at the seat of the Sichuan Opera theatre becomes a kindergarten, and children playing on the sports road. Anyway, house numbers, name board hanging over the old shops often remind passersby of something unchanged.

Living by the Yangzi River, people have been keeping a habit to swim, even in winter. Wang Ligang, one swimmer these days Ihappened to meet, told me,”Istarted to swim as a young boy, at that time, the riverwas not as wide as today,“as the Three Gorgesproject operating, the water level rose to submerge the old city and the width of the River expanded, Mr. Wang sat on a step on the bank of the Yangzi, where no pebbles are lying, and continued,”But anyhow, Istill keep swimming even in winter, because I think there must have something unchanged.”

In fact, my hometown is a very common example of rapid development of Chinese cities, especially in promoting the process of urbanization. But when most of us are proud of the fast achievements, people in these cities have usually only 10 or 20 years to adjust the changed and the unchanged, and the old and the new.

TAN Xinyu

Graduate from BFSU; interested in international political issues and diplomacy; love to share ideas with people