This article is from WeChat public account: New Weekly (ID: new-weekly) , author: Lu Chih fees, title figure: K3 train / courtesy of
The K3 train appears to be passing calmly through a leafy boat of the new pneumonia storm. It seems to be completely isolated from the endangered epidemic in China, but it is constantly beaten by information and public opinion about its destiny.
When the virus ran rampantly in Wuhan, my family and I boarded K3. This is a train from China to Moscow. We are looking forward to this trip across Asia and Europe. It is not clear what happened. Things were so serious in that city.
At the same time, Coco boarded the K3 train with a bouquet of lilac daisies. She wiped the stained window glass in front of her several times with a napkin, and then inserted the daisies.
“There will be snow and white birch forest outside, wow, beautiful photos.”
The journey in reality is not always as joyous and worry-free as in the movie / “Aunt”
Coco is a Shanghai girl I met after boarding K3. The photo of her holding a daisy was the first photo I took on the K3 train. Just the moment I pressed the shutter, I didn’t expect that in the next 72 hours, the camera in my hand had no chance to witness how the romantic imagination from Russian and Soviet literature became vivid and full, butInadvertently recorded a real Odyssey.
At 20:10 on January 22, the K3 train stopped on time at the Erlian station of the China-Mongolia border station. Passengers wrapped up their down jackets, rushed to the platform where the temperature was minus 11 degrees, and took pictures with the national emblem on the green body.
Maybe it’s near New Year’s Eve. Through the glass door of the pit hall, you can see that the shops across the street are closed early. The only thing worth recording with a camera is the “Long Live the World’s Great Unity” neon light on the side of the station building.
The K3 train originated in Beijing and passed through Ulaanbaatar to Moscow. It is a multinational train known as “China’s first longest”. The passengers on this train are mostly tourists from all over the world who are eager to explore the scenery along the Siberian Railway.
Many travel strategies have mentioned that in the next 4 hours, passengers will go through border checks, train changes, and leave China at 1 am in the above limited space.
I followed the crowd into a convenience store in the pit hall. I was planning to redeem Tugrik (Mongolia’s common currency). At this time, several border checkers stopped in front of the passengers who entered the toilet. Clear it out, “Please come back to the car and wait.”
The flight attendant gave a more straightforward answer: “Maybe I can’t walk.”
The train passes through a distant snowy field, but still cannot completely leave the cloud of disease / Photo courtesy of the author
January 22, 21:00
The air in the K3 train seems to be frozen
The nervousness that shakes the nerves begins to spread from around 15:30 on the 22nd. At that time, the train was traveling to the junction of Jin and Mongolia, and a strong vinegar smell suddenly appeared at the sliding door of the carriage.Spread it out.
While we were suspiciously sitting one by one from the platform of Erlian Station, the frontier inspector held the temperature detector to each forehead.
Soon, the tense atmosphere in the carriage suddenly escalated after a voice saying “one person has fever”. The passengers resting by the window all wore masks by accident.
A few hours ago, passengers on K3 also exchanged their experiences of playing “Plague Company” with ease, and checked whether the cities where they lived with each other had been “occupied.”
Also a few hours ago, Beijing Railway Station could not see any obvious new pneumonia screening operation. The main operating pressure of this railway station started in the Guangxu period before January 22, 2020, still came from Spring Festival every year.
The air seemed to freeze. The compartment was cut into two parallel spaces: some girls who traveled out of the group turned out board games cards, and the giggle of “Werewolf! Werewolf!” Penetrated the compartment wall, and some passengers described the meaning of the word “cool” in front of them. The situation, the eyebrows under the cover of books, mobile phones, and pads showed anxiety.
A Mongolian girl working in Beijing later said that she originally wanted to visit relatives in Zamyn-Ude, and by the way went to the grassland to “self-empty”, but now she is worried about whether the train will be restricted from leaving and “repatriated” to Beijing Will I face the possibility of isolation or even worse.
Snow-covered stations along the way / Photo courtesy of the author
During the K3 train’s staying on the tracks for more than 3 hours, the “Dongfang Red” broadcast at the station clock outside the window was punctuated with the scattered firecrackers in the distance, which is not safe. The sense began to emerge from the details of the compartment:
The queues in front of the closed toilets began to line up; the power of the mobile phones plugged into the aisles waiting to be charged gradually turned “red” and then “rescued”; several passengers tried to wash their hands with drinking water that lost heat in the tea stove, To seek the so-called “Cleanliness “; the window near the platform is said to be able to see the entry of the ambulance, but it is also limited to the” supposed “stage.
Train through the forest / Photo courtesy of the author
January 22 22:30
“It will be more troublesome to bring hidden dangers abroad”
The attendant Xiaolu, who is in charge of my carriage, said that the situation on the train is being notified to the relevant departments such as the Iron General Administration, the Health and Health Commission, and there must be a clear handling method before entering the rail change process.
But as a railway worker in the border area of China, he has as limited information as we do. “I was notified after the departure to pay attention to this matter, and now I can only wait and see the result. Of course, if something happens, then It has happened. “Xiaolu said.
He kept using “all right” to soothe the emotions of the people around him. Some passengers suggested that he put on a mask and put it on. He didn’t agree and said, “I don’t want to cause panic.”
During chatting with Xiaolu, he kept swiping his phone. For flight attendants who have to hand over their mobile phones under working conditions, this move seems unusual. “It is also the master Kai En, our job is really too difficult.”
CarThe scenery outside the window may be fresh enough for passengers, and is somewhat monotonous in the eyes of flight attendants / Photo courtesy of the author
Xiaolu admitted that during the ten years accompanying the coal-powered “original green leather car” produced in Germany in 1996, K3, he added coal, shoveled ice, cleaned, and assisted staff from China, Mongolia, and Russia Inspection, and even order maintenance, are his duties.
He has tried “sauna” in air-conditioned and space-constrained cars in summer, and he has also seen snow and sand from the windows to the aisle floor in extreme weather.
He believes that the recuperation of nearly one month after the end of the mission is simply not enough to bridge the thirteen days of toil. As for the pronouns that people think of “poem and distance”-the rare grasslands, forests and Baikal Lake, he was even more impressed by the low temperature of minus 40 degrees, and the trouble caused by long-term insufficient signal.
“Isn’t it possible to watch Xu Ai’s” Auntie “? It should have been pitted by a lot of people like you who paid for your sins.”
The chaotic K3 carriage in the movie “Aunt” / The movie “Aunt”
When listening to Xiaolu, the passenger on the K3 train instinctively considered his experience in the context of a new type of pneumonia. After several confrontations between different views, a preliminary conclusion was reached-the equipment is old and the cleaning conditions are limited. The danger of breeding germs is lurking in the train, and the huge geographical span also obviously increases the uncertain factors in the trip. However, the cold wind filled at the car interface can still ensure air circulation.
“Compared to high-speed rail and airspace.
“It can only be said that K3 has seen all kinds of situations, including everything at the moment. But it is more troublesome to bring hidden dangers out of the country. It is actually the most effective way to limit exits immediately.
The older train conductor who called the train robberies of the 1990s “it’s almost the same as in a TV show” so sighed