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26th to 29th September 2005 With the end of steam on the Jitong line this Autumn, Huanan may well become the focus for steam enthusiasts in China. It really is stunning. Carrying just 8 wagons of coal from a mine at Honguang, some 50km over the mountains three times a day, there is no way this line can be economic. Moreover, it is prone to frequent breaks in service when equipment breaks, or politics intervenes. We were incredibly lucky to get 3 good days action in the 4 we were there. On the second morning at 8am, after a 2hr trip over the mountains, partially on motorbike, we photographed the morning service leaving Lixin with a banker to lift the train over the summit. |
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The main industry in this area is agriculture, with most people living a very basic exisitence. Tractors are only starting to appear in any numbers, and more agricultural work is still done with animals rather than machinery. Here, the pumpkin harvest is being put through a machine that separates the seeds from the flesh. It seems a huge waste of pumpkin that only the seeds are kept, but maybe there's no good way of preserving pumpkins through the hard winter months. |
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| Engine 04 takes the empties up from Huanan late in the afternoon. |
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| Old meets older on the plains outside Huanan. There are more good shots on this line than you will manage to photograph in 2 weeks, never mind 4 days. |
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| The Railway worker's refuge at Lixin, over the mountains from Huanan. There is no road access to the village, making it seem very remote indeed. We spent the night in this building, beneath some itchy wooly blankets. Our meal was entirely fresh ingredients, straight from the fields. Not an additive in sight. |
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| The kitchen at the Lixin refuge. Dishes were cooked one at a time on the ring to the left, and brought through to our room. |
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| Tououzi village. The only building over one story tall is the school. The railway runs straight down the main street. Most traffic here is animal hauled rather than motor. This is the real China. Agricultural, virtually subsistence, and medieval. The only exception to this is that every home, no matter how modest, has a TV ariel. Nearly all of China that I've seen is like this once you get away from the East coast. |